Jerry Jones prides himself on being a shrewd negotiator, but Adam Schefter does not think the Dallas Cowboys owner did his best work when trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers last week.
The Packers traded two first-round draft picks and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas in exchange for Parsons. During Schefter’s Thursday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” McAfee said he believes the Cowboys could have gotten an additional first-round pick from Green Bay in the deal.
While Schefter did not agree that the Packers would have been willing to trade three first-round picks, he did say someone called him and expressed confidence that Jones could have asked for another mid-round pick and gotten it.
“I had somebody call me yesterday and they’re like, you’re gonna tell me that if Jerry Jones at the last moment had said to Green Bay, ‘OK, you’re giving us two (first-round picks) and Kenny Clark, to close this out we need another (third-round pick)…’ Green Bay would have thrown it in,” Schefter said.
Some people believe Jones became desperate to trade Parsons before the season, knowing that the two sides were not going to agree on a long-term contract. The situation had turned ugly after Jones publicly accused Parsons’ agent of sabotaging a deal.
No NFL team has ever traded three first-round picks for a defensive player, so that probably was not going to happen. You have to think Jones tried to squeeze as much as he could out of the Packers, but it is possible that he wanted to make sure the deal got done and did not want to risk having Green Bay walk.
If you ask Jones, the Cowboys have become a better team by trading Parsons. Maybe that’s why the 82-year-old did not bother to try to get more from the Packers.
