3 realistic Micah Parsons trade offers and landing spots if Cowboys divorce comes true

The Dallas Cowboys and Micah Parsons approach the final week of NFL preseason without a new contract in place. Dallas' handling of this situation has been utterly baffling. Never has Jerry Jones' ego been more fully on display. It's clear that every gripe Parsons has against the Cowboys front office is justified. He wants a totemic payday — and he deserves it — but Dallas has expressed their reticence is the most dumbfoundingly arrogant way possible.

Jones cited injury concerns. Parsons missed four games last season, the only four games he has missed in four NFL seasons. Jones is apparently under the impression that Parsons agreed to a handshake deal in a completely unrelated meeting, then walked back on his promise by involving his agents. And this after Parsons expressed a willingness to take a discount to help the Cowboys balance the checkbook. No player has ever negotiated a historic contract without his agent.

It's so dumb. So, so dumb. But here we are. There has been zero tangible progress on a deal, Parsons has requested a trade, and now ESPN's Adam Schefter believes the gap is too wide for the two sides to come back together again.

If this ends in a trade, here are a few realistic packages and landing spots to facilitate the next chapter of Parsons' potential Hall of Fame career.

Las Vegas Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders are in a great spot, $40 million under the cap with a projected $100 million margin next offseason. The Raiders also have Tom Brady in the ownership group, a well-respected defensive head coach in Pete Carroll, and a perfect pass rush co-star for Parsons in the recently extended Maxx Crosby. Building your defense around Parsons and Crosby for the next five years sure sounds like a good investment.

Dallas won't trade Parsons without a massive haul, but it shouldn't be hard to drum up options for a durable 26-year-old with Parsons' track record. He finished last season with 12.0 sacks in only 13 games; he's one of the most dominant pass-rushers in football. Suddenly the Raiders start to really feel like a Pete Carroll team, built to win in the trenches.

Between Parsons and Crosby on defense and Geno Smith and Ashton Jeanty on offense, the Raiders would feel like a genuine threat in the AFC West. That is a cutthroat division and Las Vegas has been floating in competitive no-man's land for a while, but this is a front office and an organization desperate to level up. The whole offseason has been spent expediting the "rebuild" around the NFL's oldest head coach. Parsons puts the Raiders on the map for the foreseeable future.

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns turned a Myles Garrett trade request into a historic contract extension earlier this offseason, giving the Cowboys the blueprint for how these Parsons negotiations should have gone. If Dallas is too far gone in Parsons' book, the Browns can double down on a dominant pass rush with Parsons. That immediately becomes the most terrifying two-man defensive tandem in the NFL, by a not-so-close margin.

Cleveland is swimming in assets after trading out of the Travis Hunter pick on draft night. That decision was met with blowback in the moment, but if it sets up Andrew Berry to land Parsons, every Browns fan will leave a hand-written apology note in his mailbox. It's hard to trust this Browns offense under [insert QB here], but we've seen Cleveland compete on the strength of its defense before. Parsons can help them reach that elite level once again.

If No. 5 pick Mason Graham lives up to his potential on the defensive line, I'm not sure what the league does. Cleveland will probably score points with Joe Flacco; he's going to throw interceptions, but he's also going to throw a lot, and some of those passes will connect. If the offense is even passable, suddenly the Browns start to feel like a real lurking threat in the AFC, despite themselves.

Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers paid Jordan Love, but the front office has otherwise been careful about spending too much on the roster margins. That leaves the door open for a blockbuster trade. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport recently pointed to Green Bay as a logical destination for Parsons, should his Cowboys tenure come to an end.

Obviously, Cowboys fans don't want to see Parsons join the team that most recently dispatched Dallas from the playoffs, but football is a business and Jerry Jones does not possess the self-awareness to pass on what he perceives as the best trade, even if an enemy of the state offers it. Green Bay needs to start going all-in on this core; Parsons takes the defense to a whole new level.

Green Bay's defense features a ton of up-and-coming talent, such as recent first-round picks Lukas Van Ness and Quay Walker, as well as established Pro Bowlers, such as Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark and Xavier McKinney. All the pieces are there, but Parsons would tie it together and finally crystallize Green Bay as a two-way wrecking crew in the competitive NFC North.