Jerry Jones insists the Cowboys got better Thursday despite trading a generational player to a conference rival. The owner cited the cap space, the draft picks and the defensive tackle the Cowboys got in return.
Dallas freed up $19 million by swapping Parsons for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and now have $42 million in cap space for 2025. That gives them room to sign some other players to contract extensions, most notably cornerback DaRon Bland and left guard Tyler Smith.
“[We got] a lot of capital that is required to build a team,” Jones said. “It takes many players, to be trite, to play in the NFL. It takes 11 on the field at the same time. It takes a minimum of 30 or 40 — at minimum — to have both offense and defense, not including players who are involved in our special teams. So, it takes more than one. You do have to allocate your resources whether it be draft picks or whether it be finances. There was no question in our mind that [Micah] could bring a lot of resources in a trade. That has been on my mind since we hired Brian [Schottenheimer]. So, there was no question.”
Jones said the Cowboys could use the two first-round picks now to trade for a player. (Yes, he and executive vice president Stephen Jones said this.) Or they could use those picks to get anywhere from “three to five” players. (Even though the Packers’ picks the next two years figure to be in the 20s or 30s.)
“Those draft picks could get top, Pro Bowl-type players,” Jones said. “Could. Not necessarily. Let me be quick to say: You won’t necessarily get those players. You’ve got to draft them or acquire them. But they can get us as few as three or as many as five outstanding players. Now, not only do they contribute in a game that needs a lot of players on the field — not to be elementary — but they also give you better odds that they’re going to be a high percentage of those are going to be available just from the standpoint of attrition or from the standpoint of just sheer limit on how far one player can go. Very few players are Deion [Sanders] playing a hundred plays a game.”
Clark, a three-time Pro Bowler, solves a big problem on the team. He immediately shores up a run defense that allowed more than 100 yards in 12 games last season and more than 140 eight times. As Todd Archer of ESPN pointed out, the Cowboys have allowed 425 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 103 carries in their past three playoff losses to the 49ers (2021-22) and Packers (2023).
“Kenny Clark is a big part of this,” Stephen Jones said. “That was a big part of winning right now, and we feel like when you look at the frustration is we hadn’t been able to win the big games in the playoffs, and we think it is a direction connection to not being able to stop the run. And we think Kenny Clark is going to be a big piece to that. We felt like because of our depth on the edge, as well as the ability to scheme pressure, that we could make up for Micah because obviously he’s elite at rushing the passer that we can make up for that.”
In the past four seasons, the Cowboys have made the postseason three times with a 1-3 record. Now, they’ve lost their best player, a player on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
But Jerry Jones said, with a straight face, that the Cowboys somehow became better today.
“In our judgment this gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years,” Jones said.
The Cowboys went 7-10 last season but won 12 games for three consecutive seasons before that.