Micah Parsons trade came with ‘poison pill’ blocking potential deals to NFC East: Source – The Athletic
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When the Dallas Cowboys pulled off a blockbuster trade in August, sending All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers, they sent with him some assurances. Within the conditions of the deal was a “poison pill” aimed at preventing Parsons from being dealt to the Philadelphia Eagles or any of the Cowboys’ NFC East rivals.
That condition, according to a team source briefed on the trade details and first reported by ESPN, states that if the Packers were to trade Parsons to an NFC East team, Green Bay would have to give the Cowboys its 2028 first-round pick. The poison pill conditions apply to this season and 2026.
The original trade had the Packers sending interior lineman Kenny Clark and the 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the Cowboys for the 26-year-old Parsons, meaning if the Packers decide to move Parsons back to the NFC East, the Cowboys would get their first pick in the next three seasons. Clark was also traded under similar conditions: Should he be sent back to any team in the NFC North, then Dallas would owe Green Bay its 2028 first-round pick.
Earlier this year, ESPN reported that Philadelphia made a strong push to bolster its defensive line with Parsons, a Harrisburg, Penn., native and All-American at Penn State, but Dallas was uninterested in facing him twice a year.
This isn’t the first time this kind of insurance has been used in a trade. When the Packers traded then-superstar and franchise leader in passing Brett Favre to the New York Jets in 2008, they utilized a similar condition. If the Jets had traded Favre to any NFC North rival of Green Bay, it would have come at the price of owing Green Bay three first-round picks.
Favre, of course, ended up in Minnesota after New York regardless; however, since he joined the Vikings after unretiring and as a free agent, it negated the poison pill.
After a significant negotiation period that ended with no contract extension, the Cowboys moved Parsons, the three-time All-Pro, north to Wisconsin this summer, where he signed a record-setting four-year, $188 million deal with $120 million fully guaranteed at signing and $136 million guaranteed in total.
Parsons has logged 59 career sacks since being drafted No. 12 in 2021, the most for any player drafted this decade. He will lead his Packers (5-2-1) against the Eagles (6-2) Monday night, facing a team he’s been essentially blocked from joining any time in the near future.
