For so long, the Dallas Cowboys have made themselves the easiest of targets.

They don’t just embrace the spotlight — they chase it.

So when they swung this season’s most stunning blockbuster trade last month, shipping out superstar linebacker Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for a pair of first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark, it was natural to rush to criticism. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones failed to negotiate a contract extension with Parsons, which led to yet another messy battle with a player before the move. It didn’t help that Parsons immediately agreed to a historic four-year, $188 million contract with the Packers.

Much of the criticism was fair. But considering the target, was it perhaps just a little too over the top?

Parsons and the Packers visit the Cowboys on Sunday night, intensely amplifying the NFL’s wildest storyline of the young season. Parsons has further pushed the Packers (2-1) into Super Bowl contention, while the Cowboys (1-2) have much work to do to approach that status.

Therefore, it felt like the right time to revisit the Cowboys’ shocking decision. The passing of time should mute the hot takes and replace them with reasoned analysis.

Right?

The Athletic asked 12 decision-makers around the league — general managers, team executives and coaches — a simple question: Would they rather have Parsons at $47 million annually or an extra pair of first-round draft picks?

Ten evaluators picked Parsons. The other two said the answer was dependent on the organization’s situation in relation to its roster construction. None said they’d unequivocally take the picks.

“The chance of drafting someone that impactful with those two first-round picks isn’t very high,” said an executive who was granted anonymity so he could speak openly about the deal.

He’s not wrong, of course. Finding another player who could rack up 52.5 sacks, 63 tackles for loss and 112 quarterback hits in his first four seasons would be a tall order. A 2021 first-round pick, Parsons ranked fifth in the NFL in all three categories in that span.

The Packers have been on a rapid ascension in the post-Aaron Rodgers era, clearing the books by loading the roster with talented draft picks and surrounding quarterback Jordan Love with requisite talent for his own emergence. Defensively, coordinator Jeff Hafley quickly established one of the better systems in the league, to the point where he is on the short list of head coaching candidates for the next coaching cycle, and the Packers viewed Parsons as a difference-maker in Hafley’s scheme.

By regulating their costs, the Packers could afford to make a bold swing for one of the league’s best overall players. And once Parsons has enough time to learn the defense, the Packers’ front seven should be as good as any in the league, with pass rushers Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness along with linebackers Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker.

“If I’m (the Packers) and in a Super Bowl window, the impact player now is worth the money,” a second executive said.

The move didn’t come without risk. Love is already on the books for $55 million annually, and the Packers may need to upgrade Gary’s contract after the season — he’s due $42 million in cash between 2026 and 2027 — to inch him a little closer to Parsons’ tax bracket. And considering how well the Packers have been drafting, the absence of first-round picks will be felt at some point down the line.

It’s a measured risk, though. The Packers are trying to win a Super Bowl, and they have the pieces to do it. They also have one of the best head coaches in the NFL with Matt LaFleur, along with a front office that was just voted one of the 10 best in the league.

“I like the Packers’ situation,” a coach said. “(They have a) proven young QB with upside. They needed a difference-maker in the front. (Parsons) is 26 years old. He hasn’t been injured.”

And then there’s the Cowboys’ side of it all. They’ve known for a couple years Parsons would eventually sign the most lucrative defensive contract in history, and they were prepared to enter that stratosphere. Their last offer to Parsons was for five years and $202.5 million, according to a league source.

While the Cowboys would have needed a slight sweetener to make Parsons the richest defensive player, it’s unclear if they would have ultimately offered as much as the Packers, who became increasingly motivated to finalize the trade as the process progressed. The Cowboys intended to maintain an open dialogue with Parsons, but the Packers offered enough for Jones to pivot.

However unpopular Jones’ decision happened to be, there was a way to objectively rationalize it.

Start with how unlikely they are to win a title this season. Dallas and coach Mike McCarthy went their separate ways after a poor 2024 season. The Cowboys pivoted to first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who is unlikely to match Don McCafferty (Baltimore Colts, 1970) and George Seifert (San Francisco 49ers, 1989) as the only first-year head coaches who have won a Super Bowl.

Even without a coaching change, it would have been a serious challenge to expect the Cowboys to put a Super Bowl-caliber roster around the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback (Dak Prescott, $60 million annually), third-highest paid receiver (CeeDee Lamb, $34 million) and the highest-paid defensive player. As The Athletic recently showed with its study of QB contracts, the Cowboys faced long, if not impossible, odds to build a championship-caliber roster with that financial layout.

“If I’m a team that is building (and only has an outside chance at making the) playoffs but not in the window yet, then take the picks,” a third executive said. “It is based on the situation more than a black-and-white answer.”

Now, the Cowboys have four first-round picks in the next two drafts. Assuming the Packers make the playoffs each season, those picks will fall in the bottom third of the round, with the Cowboys’ selections likely closer to the top half. That should give the Cowboys the capital necessary to move up the board as far as they’d conceivably like. Or, they could simply inject their roster with four first-round picks.

If they turn those draft assets into cornerstone players — and their recent drafting record warrants some benefit of the doubt — the Cowboys may look back upon the Parsons trade as a win. But that could still be a few years from now. And if they whiff on the picks, well, the trade will be a disaster with long-lasting implications.

But even while conceding the Cowboys’ rationalization for the move, it’s fair and reasonable to criticize their strategy. Recent negotiations were also tumultuous with Prescott and Lamb, and both played out in public fashion. The Cowboys could have saved a substantial amount of money if they had taken a more aggressive approach at the start of each negotiation.

Prescott is on the books for $5 million more than the four quarterbacks who are tied for the second-most expensive deals, and it looks like more of an overpay after Buffalo Bills reigning MVP Josh Allen reworked his contract in March to bring it to $55 million. If the Cowboys had extended Lamb when he was first eligible in 2023, they could have set the bar at the position with a contract averaging $30 million. The prolonged processes theoretically cost the Cowboys $9 million per year.

Parsons watched it all unfold with Prescott and Lamb like the rest of the world, so his frustration would have been understandable upon realizing the Cowboys were going down a similar path with his own negotiations.

That led to the public battles, the Packers’ relentless pursuit and a shocking trade. Unless, or until, the Cowboys maximize the returns on their draft picks, it doesn’t sound like many around the league will be rushing to defend their approach.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Jason Miller and Eric Hartline / Getty Images)