Final Review of Parsons / Williams Trade

[TheMarathonContinues]

The significant difference isn't really their ages as much as it is the two seasons difference in the lengths of their careers in additions to the positions they play.

As simple as it seems to most, it just doesn't make sense to me that you want a better team so you trade off your best players in the hope of drafting players that may eventually become your.....best players.

Unless.....

Your best players today are too old to be a relevant part of the team's future.

Jerry isn't building for the future. He is building for next season with trades that indicate this is not a long-term strategy but a "future is now" strategy.

Jerry is, once again, attempting to buy a championship by sacrificing the future past 2026. In 2027 Quinnen Williams will be playing in his 9th season, Clark in his 12th. It would be Micah's 7th season.

If Jerry has kept these draft picks then he would have had four 1st round picks over the next two drafts.

Those player's rookie contracts would have ended between 2029 and 2030. Instead, we get an older, less lasting and far more expensive option.

I mean does it matter when a guys contract expire when he stinks? Do we really care how long Mazi contract was or Tacos? At the end of the day we still have 2 first rounders next year. Instead of 4 we will have 3.

I’m personally not a big fan of having multiple first rounders because for whatever reason when teams have them either one is a bust or both picks bust.

 

[kramskoi]

Quinnen will be 28 in December. 6 months later Micah will be 26. But one is an aging DT in rapid decline but the other isn’t despite having to get epidurals because he who’s back pain at 26….

This...right...here. To call Williams a DT in decline is BS. On film Williams is a beast. Clark "might" be less than he ever was but Williams is probably playing his best ball...from an experience and recognition standpoint.

I find the thread title amusing.
"Final Review".
Lol,
We won't know the final review of these trades for many years.
We have to see where these picks land, and who gets selected, and how they perform in the NFL.

Overall, I do not love either trade.
I think it was typical Jerry mismanagement of assets as a GM.
He got personal with Micah, then was forced to ship him off at a bad time.
Mind you, I actually think trading Micah was the right move, but it needed to be done at the draft. We would have received a much higher price with a lot of competition. I also find it interesting what Roseman was willing to offer (a lot more than we received from the Packers). Jerry got personal on this, and in the immortal words of Bob Sugar, it ain't show friends, it's show business".

On Q, I think we slightly overpaid, especially not knowing where that 27 pick will come in. What if one of those 27 picks is top 5? Then it's a bad trade. If the picks are 24th and 27th, not so bad a trade.

I personally believe Jerry got mad about Micah and shipped him off for less than we should have received, then got all butt hurt about the way the season was going (in large part because Jerry felt it made him look bad, and Micah look good), so he did the Q trade to silence the critics and get back into the spotlight (where he loves to be). Both were emotional decisions, and sometimes you don't think things through clearly when you're emotional. An NFL GM should not make emotional trades.

One of the main reasons we are in this talent deficit has been Jerry's unwillingness to be active in Free Agency. I understand, in FA, you are signing guys at the top of their value, so I get that. I commend the team for the way is seeks out and gets low cost FAs off the heap (Kearse and Hooker, for example), but by basically not participating in the A level free agency for many years, combined with some bad draft picks (which all teams have BTW), we have a major talent deficit.

Combine this fact with the way the Cowboys are run (you know the story of the Emperor has no Clothes?). Jerry is the Emperor, surrounded by "Yes" men who tell him how brilliant he is. Any other GM in the league would have been fired decades ago for the futility of the team under his tenure. But Jerry is immune from that as the owner.

All that being said, I am still a Cowboy fan, and I am excited. I'm a glass half full type of person, and I think Q is a great player, and I am just hoping that maybe Jerry has seen the light. Maybe his taking the Micah thing so personal it will compel him to do what is needed this coming off season, We can open up a lot of cap, enough to to sign some really solid FAs at positions of need. I believe we could build a team capable if competing next season and beyond. The question is , will we?

Parsons was NEVER going to be traded by Jones before the draft. Had the negotiations not gone south he definitely would've paid Parsons in the neighborhood of 40 mil/yr. So there was never a "choice" to trade before or after the draft. A trade was NEVER on the table...either by Jones OR Parsons. Not until negotiations broke down.

You could call it an "emotional trade"...or...call it not wanting to indulge another Mazi Smith development project...because the Prescott "window" is short. You no longer have the luxury. You have to rebuild this front seven asap to take advantage of whatever Prescott has left in 26 - 27'.

 

[Chasing6]

For the sake of argument, lets say that the Cowboys and Packers draft picks are locked in at 14 and 24 for the next two drafts. Cowboys essentially traded up from the 2nd round to the 1st round this year and traded down in the 1st round next year.

Trading up from the 2nd round to 24th has a value of 329 points. Trading down from 14 to 24 had a value of 274. The difference in value is 55 points, which does not even equate to a 7th round pick.

So at the end of the day, the Parsons trade equated to Williams and Clark. Would you have traded Parsons for Williams and Clark??

If we keep Clark on the roster after this year then there are no cap savings. If we cut him then it is a straight up trade, Parsons for Williams, with potential for cap savings.

Final review? We are not even at halftime yet.

 

[boysfanindc]

I mean does it matter when a guys contract expire when he stinks? Do we really care how long Mazi contract was or Tacos? At the end of the day we still have 2 first rounders next year. Instead of 4 we will have 3.

I’m personally not a big fan of having multiple first rounders because for whatever reason when teams have them either one is a bust or both picks bust.

So you don't want multiple 1st round picks, I personally will take as many as I can get, You have the highest percentage by far on getting great players in the first round.

 

[gimmesix]

So you don't want multiple 1st round picks, I personally will take as many as I can get, You have the highest percentage by far on getting great players in the first round.

And yet that percentage is still low, which is why picks mean less to me than actual NFL success. I would have traded a pick for Hendrickson and another for Minkah Fitzpatrick, depending on what those teams wanted. A late-first-round pick for Hendrickson, for instance, wouldn't have necessarily bothered me (although I might have asked for a late-rounder in return) because he's likely better than any pass rusher we can get in the late first round. Sure, we could get lucky, or we could get Taco.

 

[Chasing6]

And yet that percentage is still low, which is why picks mean less to me than actual NFL success. I would have traded a pick for Hendrickson and another for Minkah Fitzpatrick, depending on what those teams wanted. A late-first-round pick for Hendrickson, for instance, wouldn't have necessarily bothered me (although I might have asked for a late-rounder in return) because he's likely better than any pass rusher we can get in the late first round. Sure, we could get lucky, or we could get Taco.

Salary Cap.

 

[gimmesix]

Salary Cap.

Can be manipulated like the Eagles and other teams have done. I'd rather go for it and try to win than worry about future cap. What we've been doing hasn't worked for 30 years. Do something else.

Trading Parsons was different, even if Jerry did it out of spite. We need to take advantage of that trade. Getting Quinnen Williams is a different step toward trying to do that, but I don't think we went far enough.

One of the main problems with this team IMO is that we don't sign high-quality free agents to supplement our drafting. We use low-quality free agents (and trades) instead to fill out the roster and most of the time you get what you pay for (with a few exceptions). This year, we've now added a couple of high-quality players (Pickens and Quinnen) by trading premium picks, but I don't think we've gone far enough.

Now, it's likely that we're just going to depend on hitting with the picks we've got, and possibly move around a bit to recoup picks (could easily see us trade back with the second first). I'd rather we have used the pick on Trey Hendrickson than end up with another Sam Williams and Tolbert or Jaylon Smith or Gregory or Schoonmaker or ... Yes, we have some hits with those picks as well, but the misses show that it isn't that likely that we find a player the quality of a Hendrickson. I understand he will be expensive to retain and we'd only have him for a few years, but that's my definition of going all in for a team that does not use high-priced free agency.

 

[Reid1boys]

For the sake of argument, lets say that the Cowboys and Packers draft picks are locked in at 14 and 24 for the next two drafts. Cowboys essentially traded up from the 2nd round to the 1st round this year and traded down in the 1st round next year.

Trading up from the 2nd round to 24th has a value of 329 points. Trading down from 14 to 24 had a value of 274. The difference in value is 55 points, which does not even equate to a 7th round pick.

So at the end of the day, the Parsons trade equated to Williams and Clark. Would you have traded Parsons for Williams and Clark??

If we keep Clark on the roster after this year then there are no cap savings. If we cut him then it is a straight up trade, Parsons for Williams, with potential for cap savings.

you are completely discounting the fact Parsons wanted to break the bank with his contract. That can not be overlooked. That alone tilts the scale.... a lot.

 

[Chasing6]

you are completely discounting the fact Parsons wanted to break the bank with his contract. That can not be overlooked. That alone tilts the scale.... a lot.

No he can break GB and they can blame it on Love.

 

[starfrombirth]

There is no $47m. The idea we couldn’t have done anything without that money is a myth. It was just Jerry throwing out a red herring and unfortunately, people went for it.

Year	Micah	Quinnen	Clark	Wilson	Bland	Smith	Luepke	Clowney
2025	9,970,000	8,407,000	2,300,000	9,050,000	5,831,000	6,200,000	1,547,000	3,450,000
2026	19,247,000	21,750,000	21,500,000	2,895,000	27,400,000	27,502,000	3,000,000
2027	26,845,000	25,500,000	20,000,000	6,550,000	17,400,000	15,280,000	3,500,000
2028	42,288,000			7,215,000	11,200,000	22,280,000
2029	73,788,000				15,400,000	10,480,000
2030					8,000,000	11,200,000
	Out 2029	Out 2027	Out 2026	Out2026	Out 2027		Out 2027

2025
Micah - $9.9m
“Micah Money” cap spend - $36m (all)

2026
Micah - $19.2m
“Micah Money” cap spend - $103m (Clowney gone)

2027
Micah - $26.8m
“Micah Money” cap spend - $88m (Clowney gone)

2028
Micah - $42.2m
“Micah Money” cap spend - $26m (Williams, Clark, Luepke, Clowney gone)

2029
Micah $73m
“Micah Money” cap spend - $25m (Williams, Clark, Luepke, Wilson, Clowney gone)

2030
Micah - Gone
Still paying - $19m (Smith and Bland)

All in, even having GB pay the $72m in 2029 (which will never happen),

Micah cost - $172m
“Micah Money” - $313m

And they aren’t done spending yet.

I wasn't saying Micah's money covered everyone, just that it helped cover some of the higher salaries. There is no denying that the money that would have gone to Micah went to others instead and it paid for more than 1 player. It allowed us to pick up a few. That in no way says we are super bowl bound, just that we are closer.

 

[Chasing6]

Now he can break GB and they can blame it on Love.