Micah Parsons Trade Sends Shockwaves Through Packers, Cowboys—What It Means for the 2025 NFL Season
When a blockbuster trade slams through the NFL like a freight train, the whole league feels the tremors. The Micah Parsons move from the Cowboys to the Packers isn’t just another swap—it’s a seismic shift rewriting the 2025 playbook. Picture this: Green Bay, already a tidy top-10 squad, suddenly vaults into the upper echelon, all thanks to a defensive maestro locked in with a jaw-dropping $188 million extension. Meanwhile, Dallas finds itself scrambling in the dust, scrambling to patch a defense suddenly missing its cornerstone. How does one player’s change of scenery ripple through locker rooms, alter game-day strategies, and upend whole conference dynamics? Strap in, because this trade doesn’t just tweak rosters—it flips the script on what to expect when the season kicks off. LEARN MORE.
The Micah Parsons trade dramatically alters the NFL landscape. Here’s how it will change the Packers, Cowboys and the league as a whole.
The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys sent shockwaves through the NFL Thursday when Dallas sent star edge rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay for two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The move will have some long-term ramifications, too, after the Packers inked Parsons to a massive four-year, $188 million contract extension with $136 million in total guarantees.
How it affects each team on the field wonât be fully realized until the season kicks off, but this trade has huge implications on what the Packers and Cowboys will look like entering Week 1.
The Packers were already a top-10 club in 2025, according to our team ratings, but adding Parsons vaulted Green Bay from eighth to sixth, just behind the Commanders. The Cowboys, meanwhile, dropped slightly from 22nd to 24th, between the Vikings and Patriots.
Packers are now a clear contender
While the overall rating differences arenât groundbreaking, the Packers really saw movement on their defense. Green Bay moved from 23rd to 11th in overall defense and catapulted from 25th to ninth in pass rush in our rankings.
This shouldnât come as a huge surprise, given Parsons has been one of the best defensive players in the NFL since he was drafted, but that change is significant.
Parsons has the highest pressure rate among all edge rushers with at least 1,000 pass rush snaps since 2021 at 27.4% â ahead of Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson and Nick Bosa.
Losing Clark in the interior of the defense is a blow, but the Packers took Devonte Wyatt in the first round of the 2022 draft and he should slide into the role vacated by Clark. Wyatt has 12 career sacks in three seasons and his 18.3% pressure rate ranked 17th among interior defensive linemen with at least 180 pass rush snaps in 2024.
What this effectively does is move the Packers clearly into the top tier of the league. Green Bay plays a litany of quality quarterbacks in the regular season like Jayden Daniels, Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff (twice). Those NFC clubs will be fighting for the top spots in the conference, and the Packers needed to elevate their pass rush to remain competitive.
Oddly enough, the Packers had the second-highest pressure rate in 2024 at 49.4% but ranked 24th in sack rate at 5.5%. Parsons changes the calculus around finishing the job, given his 6.5% adjusted sack rate ranks second since 2021, as does his knockdown and QB hurry rate.
Parsons is a force multiplier on defense, and his presence should raise the play of the Packers’ other edge rushers in Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness â two other former first-round picks. Green Bay also has 2022 fifth-round pick Kingsley Enagbare. That trio combined for 17 sacks this past season.
Cowboys stuck in mediocrity
This move effectively signals the Cowboys’ disinterest in competing in 2025.
Not only did Dallas drop to the clear bottom fourth of the league in overall team rating, but their defense dropped to 30th and their second-ranked pass rush, the backbone of the team, fell to 10th.
Parsons was arguably the teamâs second-most important player behind Dak Prescott. And his absence will have ripple effects on the defense.
In the four games Parsons missed during the 2024 season, the Cowboys’ defensive success rate dropped from 23rd to 29th. Dallasâ sack rate fell even worse, from 8.6% to 7.6%, which is a seven-position drop from second to ninth. The blitz rate actually went up without Parsons in the lineup, from 32.3% to 39.1%, indicating that the Cowboys needed to utilize more rushers in an attempt to accomplish the same thing Parsons did by himself.
New defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus could change things up in Dallas now that he wonât have Parsons at his disposal, though. He only blitzed an average of 25.5% of the time during his three years as head coach of the Chicago Bears.
But heâll need to be more creative without Parsons, as his top edge rushers will be second-round rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku, 2024 second-rounder Marshawn Kneeland and veteran Dante Fowler. The Cowboys also lost DeMarcus Lawrence to free agency.
That trio isnât nearly as formidable without Parsons.
In 2024, Kneeland had a 7.9% pressure rate, while Fowler had a 16.3% pressure rate with the Commanders. Ezeiruaku had a 22.3% pressure rate at Boston College, but itâs unclear how his game will translate to the NFL.
The Cowboys will need to lean on the interior of their defensive front with Clark and Osa Odighizuwa on the interior and get better play from their secondary, led by Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland. How that all works without a top-tier edge rusher will be the biggest challenge.
Dallas has the makings of a team that could compete in 2025, but losing Parsons makes that possibility less likely now that the entire defense will need to be reworked days before Week 1.
This trade signaled two key storylines this year: The Packers are playing for keeps and looking to make waves, while the Cowboys donât seem as serious about competing as theyâve been in years past.
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