The move that not many expected to happen actually did. The Dallas Cowboys actually traded one of the game's best defensive players, Micah Parsons, to the Green Bay Packers. Sure, Parsons requested a trade after extension talks went south, but it was widely expected that Jerry Jones would simply cave and pay the franchise's best player eventually.
Not paying, and instead trading, a 26-year-old of Parsons' caliber is impossible to defend. The return might not have been awful, but Parsons is already one of the best players in the NFL, and he might not have even peaked yet. Trading him, especially to an NFC rival, is again really hard to get behind.
Knowing that Jones might not always make the smartest decisions, the Philadelphia Eagles took a shot at bringing the Pennsylvania native back home before the Packers acquired him, according to Jay Glazer of FOX. Not only did they try to acquire him, but they attempted to lowball the Cowboys. To Jones' credit, he declined.
The #Eagles offered at least two 1st-round picks, a 3rd-round pick, a 5th-round pick, among other things to the #Cowboys for Micah Parsons, but Dallas declined, unwilling to trade him to a divisional rival, per @JayGlazer. pic.twitter.com/w4NjGMmGo2
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 7, 2025
Eagles never had a realistic chance to acquire Micah Parsons
It's one thing for the Cowboys to trade Parsons to begin with. It's another thing for them to trade him to an NFC contender. It's yet another thing for them to trade him to an NFC East rival. And it's yet another thing for them to trade him to their arch-rivals, the Eagles. The Cowboys were willing to trade him to an NFC contender, which can be questioned, but trading him to a team they might have to deal with once during the regular season and once during the playoffs is one thing. Trading him to the defending champions, who they face twice (at least) annually, is a whole other beast, and a possibility Dallas should've never entertained.
Knowing this, the Eagles had to know they never had a realistic chance to acquire him. This isn't to say they shouldn't have called and made an offer — it's a good thing to do due diligence — but if they were going to make a call, they had to come to Jones with an offer that'd blow him away.
Unfortunately, Howie Roseman did not do that.
Eagles didn't give themselves a chance to win Micah Parsons sweepstakes
The Eagles reportedly offered two first-round picks, a third-round pick, a fifth-round pick and "other things" to the Cowboys in exchange for Parsons. We don't know what those "other things" were, but it's unlikely that they had a needle-mover in their offer. Say what you want about the Packers' offer that wound up getting him, but I'd argue that two first-round picks and Kenny Clark is an upgrade over what's known of Philadelphia's package.
I'm not sure that even, if the Eagles offered five first-round picks, the Cowboys would've been willing to trade Parsons to their arch-rivals. What I do know is that for the Eagles to have any shot of acquiring him, they had to blow away the rest of the field. An offer of just two first-round picks and not much else didn't exactly come close to doing that.
To sum up, Roseman not only banked on a Cowboys mistake to trade a premier talent to their biggest rivals, but he also banked on them doing so for a subpar return. I don't necessarily blame him for trying to lowball, considering his history as a GM and Jones' recent failures, and say what you want about the whole Parsons experience, but Jones, clearly, wasn't that dumb.