Grade the Quinnen Williams trade

[Cowboyny]

Williams will certainly help the defensive line but my issue is we drastically overpaid for him. He is worth a second round pick not a first and a second. Jerry got desperate and we got fleeced. This could hurt big time in 2027.

Simmons would have cost the same price, they didn’t overpay as both are top 5 at the position. He is also under contract for a few seasons

 

[BaybeeJay]

That’s what has you upset? LOL

Yes; the likelihood that this team is bad in 2026 is high.

 

[baltcowboy]

Simmons would have cost the same price, they didn’t overpay as both are top 5 at the position. He is also under contract for a few seasons

Simmons is not worth more than a second either. First round picks are valuable. Now the Cowboys have to be great next season. They have to hit free agency, have to sign/tag Pickens, and need a real offseason plan. I just don’t trust them. Jerry got desperate and over paid just like I thought he would. Williams is not close to Micah and the Cowboys basically traded the same package for him.

 

[IslandCowboy]

We needed secondary and LB help way more than DT, this makes 0 sense.

 

[Hoofbite]

D for me. Got a great player but they did it in a season where it won’t matter, did it too late to actually help if it did matter, and traded away what will be a high 2nd and middle of the road 1st.

Woulda been a great move if it was the offseason, they hadn’t traded Micah, Diggs and Bland were playing their best, and the rest of the defense wasn’t trash.

Just the wrong move for the team. Completely stupid. They aren’t close and probably need a couple years to get close.

 

[plymkr]

I said B+ because I don’t know what the market was for him so I don’t know if Jerry was bidding against himself.

Overall though, now that I’ve had some time to process I’m pretty happy with things. I look at this regarding the Micah trade. So we trade one all pro for 2 first rounders and then take one of those first rounders and a 2nd to get an all pro. I like that. I also like we got an all pro that can rush the passer and play the run as opposed to Micah who just rushed the passer. So overall we got the guy we originally wanted in the Micah trade and picked up another 1st rounder.

I would like to know 2 things:
1. Did we bid against ourselves
2. Did we offer Micah to the Jets for a straight up trade for Quinnen. If we did then we won the Micah and Quinnen trades because we picked up another 1st rounder.

 

[Cowboyny]

Simmons is not worth more than a second either. First round picks are valuable. Now the Cowboys have to be great next season. They have to hit free agency, have to sign/tag Pickens, and need a real offseason plan. I just don’t trust them. Jerry got desperate and over paid just like I thought he would. Williams is not close to Micah and the Cowboys basically traded the same package for him.

You don't know what you are talking about, high end DT's are a rare commodity. You probably think if the Eagles made Carter available, he would be worth a 2nd rd pick too. You think the Chiefs win all the Super Bowl's without Chris Jones? Mahomes took less so the Chiefs could resign him.

 

[Pass2Run]

If we would have got Minkah, this would have been a banner day!!

Do these players matter right now when we have nothing at safety?

 

[Wildcat711]

Not sure why I bothered grading it as you can only tell with the benefit of hindsight.

I said C+ only because I'm a little annoyed at giving away the 2nd as well.. a 4th maybe I could live with.

 

[stiletto]

The player is an A but how we got him is really a F. (Drafting Mazi -> Trading Micah -> hoping Kenny Clark would fix the Mazi failure, giving back draft capital to get Williams). They should've just traded Micah to the Jets for Williams in MARCH. What are we doing here?

 

[Spottswoode]

The player is an A but how we got him is really a F. (Drafting Mazi -> Trading Micah -> hoping Kenny Clark would fix the Mazi failure, giving back draft capital to get Williams). They should've just traded Micah to the Jets for Williams in MARCH. What are we doing here?

Football is easy if other teams just do what you tell them to do.

Mazi was done…can’t be changed. Complaining about it isn’t going to change reality.

Micah was done…can’t be changed. Complaining about it isn’t going to change reality.

Is Williams a make-up for past sins? Don’t know and don’t care. Williams is a player and we needed to move forward.

I’m just happy we didn’t give up our first this year. Next year’s first would have been nice but there is a time value to draft picks and the value this year is higher.

 

[gtb1943]

Football is easy if other teams just do what you tell them to do.

Mazi was done…can’t be changed. Complaining about it isn’t going to change reality.

Micah was done…can’t be changed. Complaining about it isn’t going to change reality.

Is Williams a make-up for past sins? Don’t know and don’t care. Williams is a player and we needed to move forward.

I’m just happy we didn’t give up our first this year. Next year’s first would have been nice but there is a time value to draft picks and the value this year is higher.

agree about giving up next years first and not this year
unless things go totally bad next season our pick in 2027 almost certainly will not be as good
and who know; next season GB might be crap and we get lucky

 

[rambo2]

I don’t think Parsons will stay healthy, and he’s super pricey in terms of dollars. The odds favor the Cowboys winning this trade longer term.

If Parsons has a bad injury, the Packers will be toast with no 1st round pick this year and next year.

 

[Kwyn]

A. We basically traded Micah, Mazi, a 2026 2nd and 2027 1st for Williams, Clarke, Tyler smith resign, Bland resign, Bengals LB, an extra 1st and better cap situation.

It’s a win.

Unclerico, this isn’t personal, but you’re repeating some cap math that is all over and it’s important to get it sorted out properly.

Your explanation, which is what Jerry wants us to buy, invents a minimum of $150m phony “cap room” with just the deals Jerry has done so far.

The “Micah’s contract would cripple the Cowboys” fantasy is, was, and will always be a lie by Jerry, intended to stir up fan sentiment against the player and to garner support of the front office.

We can talk about culture, podcast, greed, training tables, Taco Bell, till the cows come home. Debate talent all you like and say Micah sucked at football, but we should at least stop running with the falsehoods around the cap.

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” - $36m (all)

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

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

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

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

20300
Micah - Gone
Leftover - $19m (Smith and Bland)

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

Micah - $172m
“Micah Money” - $313m

 

[Shane612]

F.
Made a trade out of desperation.
The only thing good is no more Mazi.

 

[Pass2Run]

Unclerico, this isn’t personal, but you’re repeating some cap math that is all over and it’s important to get it sorted out properly.

Your explanation, which is what Jerry wants us to buy, invents a minimum of $150m phony “cap room” with just the deals Jerry has done so far.

The “Micah’s contract would cripple the Cowboys” fantasy is, was, and will always be a lie by Jerry, intended to stir up fan sentiment against the player and to garner support of the front office.

We can talk about culture, podcast, greed, training tables, Taco Bell, till the cows come home. Debate talent all you like and say Micah sucked at football, but we should at least stop running with the falsehoods around the cap.

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” - $36m (all)

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

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

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

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

20300
Micah - Gone
Leftover - $19m (Smith and Bland)

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

Micah - $172m
“Micah Money” - $313m

The problem with Micah is he only does one thing that you need on 2, maybe 3 downs. And gets you killed on the downs you don't need him.

 

[NumOneQB]

Easily an A. Jerruh finally does something right after 100 wrongs in a row.

 

[Kwyn]

The problem with Micah is he only does one thing that you need on 2, maybe 3 downs. And gets you killed on the downs you don't need him.

That would fall into the “player skill” category. I was strictly talking about Jerry pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, promising this endless stream of free agents and trades all because he didn’t sign Micah.

He could have done all of this even with Micah.

 

[Spottswoode]

If you just look at players and picks, this is how the two big interlocked trades shake out.

We receive
Quinnen Williams
Kenny Clark
Green Bay 2026 1st - 670 pts (proj)
Green Bay 2027 1st - 670 pts (proj)


We give
Micah Parsons
Mazi Smith
Cowboys 2026 2nd - 460 pts (proj)
Cowboys 2027 1st - 1200 pts (proj)

So, we still lose overall and by a significant margin.

The only thing that allows me to rest at night will be the fact that we no longer know how to draft so the picks are less valuable than the player (Q).

Trading Micah was still colossally stupid but that’s spilled milk and with the way Jerry handled it, acting on feelings instead of football, it ended up being the only way out.

There is a time value to draft picks. All else equal, a ‘26 1st rounder has more value than a ‘27 first rounder. You can’t know the final record in advance but there is a time value associated with a delayed pick.

Some argue 1 round but that is likely too much. OTC suggests a drop but staying within the same round. Whatever the number, we likely won’t have the 12th pick in ‘27 and even if we did, it wouldn’t be valued at 1200 points today IMO.

 

[baltcowboy]

You don't know what you are talking about, high end DT's are a rare commodity. You probably think if the Eagles made Carter available, he would be worth a 2nd rd pick too. You think the Chiefs win all the Super Bowl's without Chris Jones? Mahomes took less so the Chiefs could resign him.

Williams is not in Carter’s league stop it. Carter is still on his rookie contract and the Eagles gave up little draft capital to get him. Williams has been ok since 2022 and has done nothing statistically this season for the Jets who have one win and a defense that has been terrible all season. You sound like someone who thinks the Cowboys got a steal with getting Clark for Micah. The Cowboys are just throwing darts at the board. Hoping something sticks. I hope I am wrong but this is desperation. No plan at all.