The Eagles reportedly made a big offer to Jerry Jones for Micah Parsons ahead of the season, with the Cowboys owner supposedly upcharging a division rival. Ultimately, the Packers were the team that landed Parsons, but that wasn’t the last of Jones trying to keep the edge rusher from returning to the NFC East.
Turns out that Jones didn’t want his own Saquon Barkley revenge tour, and included a provision in Dallas’ trade with Green Bay that should the Packers trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East, the Cowboys would get an extra first round pick — this was a reciprocal agreement, with the Cowboys risking an additional first round pick should they trade Kenny Clark to the NFC North.
Via NFL insider Adam Schefter:
Green Bay Packers star pass rusher Micah Parsons will line up Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Dallas Cowboys went out of their way over the summer to ensure Parsons would not play for the division-rival Eagles — at least not anytime soon. Unbeknownst to everyone except the few who crafted the August blockbuster trade that sent Parsons from Dallas to Green Bay was a “poison pill” condition that, according to sources involved with the deal, prevents the two-time All-Pro from playing for Philadelphia in the immediate future. The previously unreported condition states that if the Packers decide to trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East — the Eagles tried to trade for him in the summer before being rebuffed — then Green Bay would owe Dallas its 2028 first-round draft pick, sources involved in the trade told ESPN. […] League sources said these “poison pill” conditions clearly were put into place to block Parsons from winding up in Philadelphia, not far from where he grew up and one day wanted to play. The “poison pill” conditions apply to this season and 2026, according to sources, meaning the Packers don’t have a clear path to trade Parsons to another NFC East team until 2027 at the earliest.
This provision might keep Parsons out of the NFC East in the immediate future, but it’s far from a lock that he doesn’t end up back in his former division at some point in his career. And if he were going to return, it probably would be thanks to Howie Roseman accepting the challenge of figuring out how.
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