Cowboys Included Poison Pill In Micah Parsons Deal To Block Trade To Eagles

According to Adam Schefter, the Cowboys included a poison pill in the trade that sent DE Micah Parsons to the Cowboys that would block Green Bay from trading Parsons to the Eagles. 

The condition in the trade says if the Packers trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East, Green Bay must send the Cowboys their 2028 first-round pick. 

There is a mirroring poison pill for Cowboys DT Kenny Clark if Dallas trades him to a team in the NFC North. 

Schefter says the Eagles made a push to trade for Parsons this past summer but were rebuffed by the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones, who evidently are highly opposed to seeing Parsons twice a year if they could help it. 

He adds these conditions apply through the 2026 season. The other impact is that neither Dallas nor Green Bay can trade their 2028 first-round picks until the poison pill conditions are resolved. 

The league moved to crack down on poison pills in contracts a couple of decades ago but they still pop up in trades from time to time. Green Bay included a poison pill when it traded QB Brett Favre to the Jets to try and prevent him from ending up with the Vikings. 

Parsons, 26, was the former No. 12 overall pick by the Cowboys in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Penn State. He played out the final year of a four-year, $17,079,792 rookie contract that included a $9,781,667 signing bonus.

Dallas exercised the fifth-year option for Parsons, and he’s slated to make $21.32 million guaranteed in 2025. 

The Cowboys traded Parsons to the Packers for DT Kenny Clark and two first-round picks before the 2025 season. Green Bay instantly handed Parsons a four-year, $186 million extension, keeping him under team control through 2029. 

In 2025, Parsons has appeared in eight games for the Cowboys and recorded 20 total tackles, seven tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks.