On Thursday afternoon, the NFL social media universe exploded with the news that the Cowboys were trading superstar Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.
That move ended a drama-filled saga for the Cowboys, whose relevance in the last decade or so is centered around how much attention and drama owner and GM Jerry Jones can drum up each season.
It’s essentially a mandatory event that Jones will do or say something annually that will put the Cowboys back in the national spotlight, something they have struggled to do on the NFL gridiron despite the talent they’ve had.
So today, exactly one week before they face the Eagles to start the season on Thursday Night Football, the Cowboys are back in the spotlight for failing to do what all Dallas fans wanted.
Keep Micah Parsons.
It’s safe to assume that almost every Cowboys fans will blame Jerry Jones for this massive loss, despite picking up Pro Bowl DT Kenny Clark and first round picks in 2026 and 2027.
Jones definitely deserves a lot of blame for this fiasco, but instead of blaming Jones, we should all be bigging up Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta.
Mulugheta was the target of Jones, both directly and indirectly.
Back in April, news surfaced that Jones tried to deal directly with Parsons and leave Mulugheta out of the equation. At one point, Jones even claimed that he didn’t know the name of Parsons’ agent.
Right.
Mulugheta’s resume is one agents dream of having.
Between 2020-2022, he had the most first-round picks of any agency during that time frame.
In 2022, he had seven of the Top 100 players, including 4 in the top 50.
And in 2024, he became the first agent in NFL history to negotiate over $1 billion in contracts.
But Jerry Jones doesn’t know who the agent of the best, and most dominant player on the Cowboys over the last four years, is? Stop.
That’s purely an attempt at posturing and positioning while engaging in the biggest and, arguably, most important contract negotiation in recent years in Dallas.
To his credit, Mulugheta refused to stoop to Jones’ level.
“I agree with Jerry- it’s never been about me,” Mulugheta told Pro Football Talk at the time. “The only person that matters here is Micah, and, at the end of the day, our goal is for Micah to be able to do for generations of Parsons what Jerry has done for generations of Jones.”
Today, Mulugheta did just that for his client for after the Cowboys traded Parsons to the Packers, his “unknown” agent negotiated a four-year, $188 million extension with Green Bay, with $136 million guaranteed. That pushes him past TJ Watt (3 years, $123 million) and Myles Garrett (4 years, $160 million), making Parsons the highest paid non-QB in NFL history.
Adding Parsons to a Green Bay defense will fuel-inject a defense that ranked 4th overall in terms of total points allowed (318 total; 18.7 ppg) and ignite the unit’s high expectations immediately.
While Packers fans are ecstatic over their new acquisition, Cowboys fans are left frustrated with and angry at Jones. They’re furious at watching an elite player move to a team that beat the Cowboys in Dallas in their last playoff appearance in 2023. They’re dumbfounded that he’s on a team in NFC that now takes a huge jump into the Super Bowl contender conversation.
Jones tried to dispel the anger in his press conference after the trade.
“Obviously, we did think it was in the best interest of our organization,” Jones said. “Not only the future but right now, this season, as well. We’ve gained a Pro Bowl player in an area that we had big concerns in.”
That’s true, for Clark, 29, is a 3x Pro Bowler.
“Not only do we immediately get a player, but those draft picks could get us, I’m talking top, Pro Bowl-type players. Could,” continued Jones. “You won’t necessarily get those players. You’ve got to draft or acquire them. But they could get us as few as three or as many as five outstanding players.”
He also noted that the Cowboys now have four first round picks over the next two years, and that’s nothing to dismiss.
But Parsons, 26, is a gamechanger.
He’s elite. A 4x Pro Bowler and 2x All Pro. He’s also had 12 or more sacks in each of his four seasons. The only other player to do that is Hall of Famer Reggie White, one of the greatest and most dominant players in NFL history.
Mulugheta knows all of this, which is why he reportedly deaded the framework of a deal that Jones said he had etched out with Parsons (Parsons said their meeting morphed into contract talk but that it wasn’t a formal discussion as Mulugheta wasn’t present). He understood his client’s value and the deal points in the contract extension that Jones wanted (five years, backloaded payments, etc.).
That’s why Parsons is in Green Bay as the highest-paid, non-QB in NFL history.
That’s why Jones rushed to justify the trade and now must fend off the anger from fans and critics and the laughter from all non-Cowboys fans.
And that’s why David Mulugheta should be applauded and celebrated even more than Jones should be criticized.
