The Cowboys are about to be on the wrong end of a Herschel Walker-esque trade.
ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said Dallas’ stunning decision to trade Micah Parsons to the Packers on Thursday will be one of the worst moves in the storied franchise’s history.
“Good organizations do not trade Hall-of-Fame players in their primes,” Orlovsky said Friday on “Get Up.” “Right now, the Cowboys are not a good organization.
“This will go down as one of the worst trades in the history of their football team and their organization.”
The Cowboys made the potentially franchise-changing call to trade Parsons amid their contract standoff, sending him to Green Bay for Kenny Clark and two first-rounders.
Under owner Jerry Jones, Dallas pulled off a similar trade in 1989 when it sent Walker, a star running back, to the Vikings, which helped kickstart the Cowboys’ 1990 dynasty.
Jones even referenced that deal in explaining the motivation to trade Parsons.
“I think a lot of Micah and I wish him so much success. I don’t want him to have success when he plays the Cowboys, as much as I do want him to have overall success,” Jones said Thursday night. “But Micah Parsons did an outstanding job for us for four years, and a little bit of the way Herschel Walker may have had his greatest contribution to the Cowboys, what he brought to us when he left could be a tremendous thing for our fans and the success of this team.”
Orlovsky isn’t buying it.
He expects the Packers to be an elite team in 2025 and at least 2026, which would put the first-round picks the Cowboys will receive in a range where they are not close to the top 10.
The Packers’ 13-1 odds at BetMGM to win the Super Bowl rank sixth in the sport.
“They traded away a future Hall of Famer for what likely will be the 28th to the 32nd pick in the first round,” Orlovsky said. “The Packers are going to be good as long as Jordan Love is healthy. You got two picks that are basically early second-round picks, and depending on if the draft is loaded with talent or not, could be very invaluable to that football team. I think the shine for the Cowboys is gone because of this. When I grew up, no one left the Dallas Cowboys. Nobody. The fact that this was Micah initiating, I don’t want to be here anymore — the allure of the star feels gone.
“They got fleeced. This is not a trade you can sit here and go, ‘Well, they’re going to use those picks to go get Arch Manning. Arch Manning ain’t going to be there at (No.) 30 when you guys are picking in two years.”
Orlovsky further reiterated that he believes this will be a day that is forever remembered for all the wrong reasons in Dallas, perhaps the way Mets fans remember shipping away Tom Seaver.
“I look at this and go, from a business perspective, Jerry Jones 100 percent lost this negotiation. From a football perspective, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys 100 percent lost this negotiation,” said Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback. This is one of the, as far as we won or lost, worst days in the Cowboys since Jerry Jones has owned them. This is like the — remember after the Green Bay Packer debacle in the playoffs — he could not have handled from that moment to this moment worse.”