FRISCO, Texas – Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones had enough losing when it came to contract negotiations with his star players. That’s why All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons is now a Green Bay Packer.

“If you are the one that owns [a team] and you look in the mirror, you gotta change,” Jones said Thursday night. “So this was very deliberate.”

Jones’ approach to contract negotiations has long been about waiting until the last moment to finalize deals. His “high tolerance for ambiguity” was previously one of the reasons for this strategy, but it appears that tolerance has worn thin. After losing protracted negotiations with three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott and All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb last offseason, Jones turned to Parsons as a way to right his wrongs.

Parsons, the NFL’s first player since sacks became a statistic to record 12 or more sacks in each of his first four seasons, had been expressing discontent regarding his contract situation, citing “back tightness” as a reason to avoid practice. Following an MRI that cleared him to practice, he sought a second opinion, leading to his public trade request on August 1.

“There’s not an ounce of vindictiveness,” Jones stated. “There’s no bad feelings on my part about the fact that we didn’t come together on an agreement.”

In trading Parsons, Jones aims to demonstrate control, even if it implies sacrificing a key player. The statistics show that the Cowboys’ defense performs significantly better when Parsons is on the field.

Having acquired the Packers’ 2026 and 2027 first-round picks, expectations are tempered as these selections will likely be late-round picks. Meanwhile, Dallas fans face the harsh reality of historically being the only NFC team not to reach the conference championship round in the 21st century. In Jones’s eyes, however, he denies yielding to Parsons’ contract demands — which he considers a personal win.