FRISCO, Texas — To Jerry Jones, the trade of Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers will make the Dallas Cowboys a better postseason team.
“This was a move to get us successful in the playoffs,” Jones said in a 46-minute news conference Thursday after the Cowboys acquired defensive tackle Kenny Clark and first-round picks in 2026 and 2027. “This was a move to be better on defense, stopping the run. This was a move to, if we get behind, not be run on. And it was a deliberate move, a well-thought-out move to make this happen.”
First, the Cowboys will have to reach the postseason without Parsons, who was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons and also totaled 52.5 sacks.
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Second, they will need their pass-rushing depth, led by Dante Fowler Jr., Marshawn Kneeland, Sam Williams, Donovan Ezeiruaku and James Houston, to become as forceful as Parsons, who is one of two players to record at least 12 sacks in each of his first four seasons since sacks became an official stat in 1982. Those five players have accounted for 73 sacks, with Kneeland, entering his second season, and Ezeiruaku, a rookie, yet to record a sack.
Third, the Cowboys will need their offense, led by new coach Brian Schottenheimer and quarterback Dak Prescott, who is returning from an injury that cost him the final nine games last season, to score a lot of points, starting next week against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“In our judgment, this gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years,” Jones said.
Before last year’s 7-10 finish, the Cowboys went 12-5 three straight years but couldn’t get past the divisional round of the playoffs. In their past three playoff losses to the Packers (2023) and San Francisco 49ers (2021-22), the Cowboys have allowed 425 yards on the ground on 103 carries with six rushing touchdowns. Parsons did not record a sack in any of those games.
Last year, the Cowboys gave up more than 100 yards in 12 of 17 games and more than 140 yards eight times. With the addition of Clark, the Cowboys have added size (6-foot-3, 314 pounds) and expertise (a three-time Pro Bowler).
“Kenny Clark is a big part of this,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “That was a big part of winning right now. … We hadn’t been able to win the big games in the playoffs, and we think it is a direct connection to not being able to stop the run. And we think Kenny Clark is going to be a big piece to that. We felt like, because of our depth on the edge, as well as the ability to scheme pressure, that we could make up for Micah because obviously he’s elite at rushing the passer.”
New defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus was a Cowboys assistant when they were No. 1 against the run in 2016. In the past 12 years as a head coach, coordinator or linebackers coach, Eberflus has had eight top-10 run defenses.
“When you have the kind of extraordinary pass rush that Micah has, then the way to mitigate that pass rush is to run at [him],” Jerry Jones said. “If the pass rush doesn’t get you ahead, pretty big time, then when you’re playing even or behind, then you really got a problem in stopping the run.”
Parsons will make his return to AT&T Stadium with the Packers on Sept. 28. Jerry Jones has seen former stars return before, like Emmitt Smith in 2003 with the Arizona Cardinals.
“Micah will be problematic, very problematic,” Jerry Jones said. “I’d suggest that we get ahead and run the ball.”