Earlier this month, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said of Micah Parsons, “11 is a Cowboy.”
Now? Not.
“I can’t say I was completely surprised, but I definitely didn’t think he was going to get traded,” Prescott told reporters on Sunday regarding the Parsons trade, via Ali Jawad of ALLDLLS.com. “Just with the way our negotiations went down, and to some extent it seemed like it got personal on their end. So, that’s why I wasn’t surprised.”
Prescott stopped short of parroting the party line that Parsons being gone could make the Cowboys better.
“I’m not going to say we’re better,” Prescott said, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “We’ve got to go out there and prove it. We had to prove it even if he was on this team, so I’m not going to say that by any means.”
Prescott then added something that underscores the perception (as mentioned by former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Friday’s PFT Live) that Parsons possibly wasn’t the leader the Cowboys needed him to be.
“I know what adding a guy like Kenny Clark, adding a true leader, a real man that’s going to only elevate this team, who’s been a Pro Bowl player and is excited about being here [means],” Prescott said, per Archer.
We don’t want to read too much into that quote. But the words can’t be ignored. The situation got to the point that Parsons didn’t want to be in Dallas. And it appeared that he’d rely on his back injury to justify not playing, until he got the trade he wanted.
Either way, it’s done. And, with Parsons now on the Packers, a reunion is looming quickly.
“He got paid very well and great for him and his family,” Prescott said. “And we’ll see him here in about a month.”
Four weeks, to be precise. On Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock.