Micah Parsons trade: Stephen A. Smith claims move by Jerry Jones will ‘taint whatever legacy he hoped to have’

Jerry Jones is receiving all kinds of criticism this morning for doing the deal yesterday that has sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. It’s so much so that Stephen A. Smith thinks this will go on Jones’ resume. Smith reacted to Dallas trading Parsons to the Packers to start on ‘First Take’ on […]

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Jerry Jones is receiving all kinds of criticism this morning for doing the deal yesterday that has sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. It’s so much so that Stephen A. Smith thinks this will go on Jones’ resume.

Smith reacted to Dallas trading Parsons to the Packers to start on ‘First Take’ on Friday. He discussed what a mess this was for the Cowboys, especially for Jones as Stephen A. thinks he let this get personal.

“This is what it is,” said Smith. “This is a disaster for Jerry Jones. This is a bad, bad situation, and I think this is something that’s going to taint whatever legacy he hoped to have because this is not a football decision. You can slice it any way you want to.”

“The reason why this is kind of something that’s going to taint Jerry Jones is because, in the end, we’re all looking at it and we know this is not purely a football decision,” Smith said. “This was clearly not for football reasons. This was because you thought you had a handshake agreement with a young man, that was basically pleading with you to talk to my representation, and you ignored him.”

That personal aspect of this then affected the business side of it, as Smith just sees this as a bad deal. For one, Dallas didn’t get enough in return for Parsons, as is almost a consensus opinion coming out of the trade, and simply could’ve gotten more had they made him more publicly available earlier. Then, for two, the Cowboys traded him to none other than the Packers, which only makes it that much worse considering the quality of franchise they’ve been in Green Bay.

“Micah Parsons is a superstar-caliber player in the National Football League. You traded him for two late first-round picks. That’s late. The Green Bay Packers haven’t had a Top-10 pick since 2009. They’re usually in contention. This is going to be a low first-round pick. You made them younger. You made them better defensively, okay,” said Smith. “They’re within the NFC. You know what, if you’re going to trade Micah Parsons? Trade him out of the conference, or trade him to somebody like New Orleans or somebody like that. You don’t trade him to a Green Bay Packers team, who, by the way, was the last team to whip your ass in the playoffs. When you were last in the playoffs, the people that busted your tail was the Green Bay Packers.”

“Two first-round picks and Kenny Clark, the defensive tackle, who had a down year last year, does not equate to a superstar, at age 26, that is Micah Parsons. It doesn’t equate to that,” Smith continued. “If you had made this deal in March, and opened the floodgates to everybody, then there’s no question that you would have had a better deal offered to you than the deal that you just agreed to.”

“You could’ve done this in March, okay,” said Smith. “So, when you trade, and you get two first-round picks? You might’ve been able to get three, and they might’ve been able to be three better first-round picks had you done it earlier and opened the floodgates because competition might’ve compelled somebody else to be willing to give up more collateral, as opposed to it being right now.”

The fact of the matter is this deal is done, with Jones not budging on signing Parsons and instead sending him away to Green Bay. That’s something that he and the franchise will have to deal with moving forward, especially since it was seemingly done with football not being the main purpose of the trade.

“All of these things that you take into consideration, for Jerry Jones to make this move? I mean, for me personally, it doesn’t bother me. This is going to give me more stuff to laugh about. But, on this particular morning, I don’t like to see Jerry put himself in this kind of position,” said Smith. “It looks very, very bad. This is not a good day for the Dallas Cowboys, at all.”

“It’s not that he’s gone. It’s what you got for him in return. But, most importantly, it’s why he’s gone because, if you’re Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, you knew what this situation was financially, cap-wise and beyond months ago, last year. You knew it then, but you wanted to keep him because you don’t let stars walk out the door if you’re Jerry Jones. But then, suddenly, you do. Why? It comes back to the why,” Smith said. “He’s taking it personally…This was different. It wasn’t just football.”

Category: Football