Twelve months after the Green Bay Packers acquired Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys in a franchise-altering trade, the verdict is still incomplete. And that is because Parsons tore his ACL late in the season, forcing everyone to hit pause on the evaluation.
Green Bay sent two first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark to Dallas for Parsons. Then Green Bay handed Parsons a four-year, $188 million contract that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. That is the price of adding a top-three defensive player at any position, and the Packers were absolutely willing to pay it after Parsons requested a trade from Dallas last summer.
Parsons played 12 games before the ACL tear. He was still on pace for 15 sacks. He forced two fumbles. He was the disruptive force Green Bay expected. The Packers went 11-6, made the playoffs, and lost in the Divisional Round to the Vikings. Parsons was on the sideline for that final game, watching his new team’s season end without him.
Now Parsons is 26 years old, rehabbing from a major knee injury, and facing the biggest question of his career. Can you come back from a torn ACL as an edge rusher and be the same explosive player? History says usually yes with modern surgery, but the timing is brutal. First seasons back from ACL surgery tend to be down years. Full recovery usually comes in year two, which for Parsons means 2027.
Dallas has been the more interesting story from a distance. The Cowboys got two first-round picks, Kenny Clark for one year of his prime, and moved on from a player they could not sign long-term. Then the Cowboys used those picks in the 2026 draft to select cornerback Will Johnson and offensive tackle Amarius Mims. Both were considered good value picks at their draft positions.
The Micah Parsons vs. Jerry Jones fallout deserves its own separate retrospective. Reports from March 2025 indicated Jerry Jones thought he had a handshake deal with Parsons for $150 million guaranteed. Parsons’ agent David Mulugheta said no such deal existed. Parsons publicly disputed the meeting was about contract negotiations, saying it was about leadership. The entire relationship melted down in the following weeks. By August, Parsons was traded.
What Green Bay bet on was Parsons’ rare combination of pass-rush skills and versatility. He could play stand-up edge, hand-in-the-dirt defensive end, or off-ball linebacker. He had 47.5 sacks in his first four NFL seasons, which put him on a Hall of Fame trajectory. Even a 90 percent version of Parsons is one of the best edge rushers in the league.
The trade will be evaluated over the next three years, not the first year. Green Bay traded picks, but the picks were expected to fall in the 20s given the Packers’ roster construction, not the top-10 range. That is what makes the deal reasonable in retrospect even accounting for the ACL setback.
Dallas has more immediate roster capital to work with. Green Bay has the player who can lift a defense from good to elite when healthy. Both sides can claim they did what was right for their franchise, and both sides can be right depending on which year you evaluate.
The final verdict on this trade will come in 2027 when we know whether Parsons is fully back or whether the injury permanently diminished the player Green Bay paid $188 million for.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
