Speaker 1: Welcome in What's Right with Nick Right a quick emergency,
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons traded to the Green Bay Packers podcast, and
Speaker 1: something that a year ago would have been unfathomable six
Speaker 1: months ago incomprehensible, started to feel possible. Well when Micah
Speaker 1: demanded a trade and then gained some momentum over the
Speaker 1: last week, and then in a flash, it's happened. A
Speaker 1: generational pass rusher. In my opinion, the best young defensive
Speaker 1: player in the league, and maybe just the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the league, is traded away in a seismic move.
Speaker 1: We will get to the Packers piece of it in
Speaker 1: a moment. The short version is there is now more
Speaker 1: pressure on Jordan Love than any other quarterback in at
Speaker 1: least his conference, if not the entire league. The pack
Speaker 1: clearly believe they can win the Super Bowl this season.
Speaker 1: Maybe they have good reason to believe it. We will
Speaker 1: discuss them in a second, but I actually want to
Speaker 1: start with the Cowboys side, because well, they're the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and this has been the story of the off season,
Speaker 1: and I'm I am not going to defend trading Micah
Speaker 1: Parsons holistically, and I understand every single person has the
Speaker 1: same take today, which is Jerry Blewett, and to a
Speaker 1: degree that is correct. But the question is, as the
Speaker 1: Cowboys woke up yesterday morning, what were their best options? Now,
Speaker 1: they should have never gotten themselves in the position they
Speaker 1: were in. The right answer here is the moment you
Speaker 1: have the ability to sign Micah Parsons, which was a
Speaker 1: year and a half ago you signed Micah Parsons. Had
Speaker 1: they done that, had they gotten ahead of it the
Speaker 1: way their divisional rival Philadelphia Eagles always do, the way
Speaker 1: the better teams in football always do, Micah would be
Speaker 1: sitting here on a long term deal that averages around
Speaker 1: thirty four million dollars a year. That's what they could
Speaker 1: have done just eighteen months ago. The pass rusher market
Speaker 1: going into last year, there was one guy making more
Speaker 1: than thirty million a year as an edge rusher, and
Speaker 1: it was Nicky Bosa. Chris Jones missed a game and
Speaker 1: held out. I know he's on an edge rusher, but
Speaker 1: he's kind of a special D tackle. This deal was
Speaker 1: shocking at thirty one million dollars a year. The right
Speaker 1: thing to do was to sign Micah a year ago.
Speaker 1: They didn't do that. That's on Jerry that's a mistake,
Speaker 1: but there is no there's nothing one can do about
Speaker 1: that mistake. And so my not necessarily defense of the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: but my honest read of it when I saw the
Speaker 1: news and saw it was forty seven million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: was Jerry and the Cowboys had put themselves in a
Speaker 1: position where no matter what they do, they get killed.
Speaker 1: Because if we're being honest, had the Dallas Cowboys, instead
Speaker 1: of trading Micah Parsons yesterday, had the Dallas Cowboys signed
Speaker 1: Michael Parsons to the exact deal the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: signed Michaeh. Parsons to every single talking head, every single
Speaker 1: sports show would be saying Jerry got worked once again,
Speaker 1: Jerry waited paid top top of market, overpaid, and they
Speaker 1: would have been right when the markets at forty one
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, your guys at forty seven.
Speaker 1: It shatters the framework of what pass rushers can make.
Speaker 1: And now, even if you're not into the accounting part
Speaker 1: of football, and I don't blame you, here's the question
Speaker 1: I would ask you. If the Cowboys had signed Micah
Speaker 1: Parsons to the deal, the Green Bay Packers just signed
Speaker 1: Mike Parsons too. Would any of us realistically believe they
Speaker 1: have a viable Super Bowl path over the next few
Speaker 1: years with Dak making sixty, with CD making top of
Speaker 1: the wide receiver market money, and with Micah making say
Speaker 1: they got him at forty five, would we say the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are going to get not back to because they
Speaker 1: haven't been there in thirty years, but get to the
Speaker 1: final four, a conference championship game, much less a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have. I thought they were going to get
Speaker 1: him done, and I thought they were a last place
Speaker 1: team this year in their division, and so you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be in this spot where you wait, wait, and then
Speaker 1: pay record setting deals. But once you put yourself in
Speaker 1: that spot and you did it with CD and then
Speaker 1: you did it with Dak, was the better option for Dallas?
Speaker 1: Resetting it one of those spots was the better. If
Speaker 1: the idea is the Cowboys are going to have to
Speaker 1: be an offense led team with Dak and CD and
Speaker 1: then build up a young, cheap defense because of how
Speaker 1: much you're paying to offense. Does getting two first round
Speaker 1: picks Kenny Clark and removing what was going to be
Speaker 1: forty plus million from your books is that a legitimate approach.
Speaker 1: I think it is now again. The better way to
Speaker 1: go about this actually probably was if you really thought
Speaker 1: you can't pay Dak CD and Micah is to pay
Speaker 1: Micah a year ago, get the two first round picks
Speaker 1: for CD Lamb and tell Dak Prescott, this is what
Speaker 1: the money's for. You're gonna have to make do without him.
Speaker 1: That's how I would have run the Cowboys. Was there
Speaker 1: an argument to make you pay CD, you pay Micah,
Speaker 1: you let Dak's contract. You do the terrifying thing of
Speaker 1: letting Dak's contract expire and get back on the quarterback carousel.
Speaker 1: That takes a lot of guts. Because you had given
Speaker 1: Dak that no trade, you couldn't necessarily wor you know,
Speaker 1: get multiple first round picks for him, because he could
Speaker 1: have just said no, I'll just let the contract play out.
Speaker 1: That that would have maybe been the riskiest move. Mike
Speaker 1: is the best player on the team. Mike is the
Speaker 1: only player on the team that is on a clear cut,
Speaker 1: undoubted Hall of Fame trajectory, and you trade them away.
Speaker 1: So that's not the decision I would have made. But
Speaker 1: as they found themselves the situation they were in in
Speaker 1: August of twenty twenty five. Was there any move they
Speaker 1: could have made you that would have been the response,
Speaker 1: would have been well done? And the answer is no,
Speaker 1: So maybe don't put yourself in that position, So be
Speaker 1: it get your business done early. Obviously that's what they
Speaker 1: need to do. But I'm not as horrified by the
Speaker 1: trade given where they found themselves as everyone else seems
Speaker 1: to be. Because if I'm being fair, if I'm being honest,
Speaker 1: had they given Micah the deal the packers just gave him,
Speaker 1: they would be getting killed for it. And I think
Speaker 1: that is a weird place to be in where there
Speaker 1: are no good options. But given where they found themselves,
Speaker 1: I don't think getting to this place is a catastrophe.
Speaker 1: The decision they made once they are in that place
Speaker 1: is to me not necessarily a catastrophe. And now a
Speaker 1: lot of people are like, well, how do you trade
Speaker 1: them in the conference? This is again a counterintuitive but
Speaker 1: pretty logical belief I've always had on these Oh, you
Speaker 1: don't trade within the division, you don't trade within the conference.
Speaker 1: If you like the trade, if you think you are
Speaker 1: winning the trade, you actually would rather the other side
Speaker 1: of the trade be someone you're competing with If you
Speaker 1: think I won the trade and the other team lost
Speaker 1: the trade, then you'd rather the loser be someone that
Speaker 1: you have to compete with to make a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: than someone in the other conference. Teams tend not to
Speaker 1: look at it that way. You know who did Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick when he traded Drew Bledsoe? But I don't have
Speaker 1: as big of a deal with trading within the conference.
Speaker 1: Now we do get to the Green Bay packers. Tell
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Speaker 1: All right, now to the Packers, they think they can
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. I think Micah is one of
Speaker 1: the best players in football. He is one of the
Speaker 1: only players that isn't a quarterback that legitimately, just by
Speaker 1: himself changes your life. And when you look at the
Speaker 1: teams who have played in or won Super Bowls, they
Speaker 1: all have a guy like that. The Chiefs obviously have
Speaker 1: Chris Jones. The Eagles have a bunch of really good defenders.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's fair to put this player
Speaker 1: in that category yet, but you feel like Jalen Carter,
Speaker 1: is that going to maybe be that type of guy
Speaker 1: that Cardinals? The Cardinals, the Rams had Aaron Donald. The
Speaker 1: Bills thought they needed it and went out and got
Speaker 1: von Miller. He ended up not being that guy the
Speaker 1: Rams that you when they won, they also had, you know,
Speaker 1: an unbelievable run from von Miller. Having a game wrecking
Speaker 1: presence up front changes your life. In the NFL, there
Speaker 1: aren't that many of them. There are none his age
Speaker 1: with his level of production, and Green Bay had done
Speaker 1: a really good job of acquiring good players. Green Bay
Speaker 1: had not done a great job of acquiring great players.
Speaker 1: And it's very hard. And this is very unlike green
Speaker 1: Bay trading away draft picks paying top of market. It's
Speaker 1: obviously they signed Reggie White famously. Obviously they signed Charles
Speaker 1: Woodson famously, but they didn't have to trade away draft
Speaker 1: picks to do that. This is as aggressive of a
Speaker 1: move as a team can make, and it's the most
Speaker 1: expensive way to acquire a player by a mile. This
Speaker 1: is more Barnwell's territory than mine. But when you do
Speaker 1: the math on the surplus value you get from first
Speaker 1: round picks that you now won't have, and then add
Speaker 1: that to Micah's salary, that forty seven million is effectively
Speaker 1: closer to sixty million a year you're paying Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: which is totally worth it. If you can win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, you can they win the Super Bowl? Yes,
Speaker 1: what's the big Who is now the biggest X factor
Speaker 1: in the NFL. The answer to that question is Jordan Love.
Speaker 1: Because we know how talented Jordan Love is. We also
Speaker 1: know we haven't seen a full awesome season from him yet.
Speaker 1: Last year he was good, but not great. Dealing with
Speaker 1: an injury the year before. He was pretty mediocre the
Speaker 1: first half of the year and then a quadruple plus
Speaker 1: the second half of the year. Every step of the
Speaker 1: way until the one awful decision late in that playoff
Speaker 1: game against the It was against the Niners. Yet it
Speaker 1: was against the Niners, and that's like a low key
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's forgotten, but we always
Speaker 1: think about the Niners comeback. What I don't know how
Speaker 1: much people think about is this the the Packers were
Speaker 1: just shy him in midfield down three a minute left,
Speaker 1: and if you remember watching that game, it felt, at
Speaker 1: least to me, like, oh, Green Bay's gonna gett and
Speaker 1: field goal range and this thing's going to overtime. And
Speaker 1: j Lo made Bruce's impact on me. Jordan Love made
Speaker 1: a you know, a rookie mistake. I know it wasn't
Speaker 1: a rookie his first year really starting, but they they
Speaker 1: go all in like this because they believe he's good
Speaker 1: enough to be a Super Bowl champion quarterback right now.
Speaker 1: And obviously, when you trade for twenty six year old
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons, he's now partnered with Jordan Love. The rest
Speaker 1: of the way what I would say is it is
Speaker 1: now going to those are your stars, and you hope
Speaker 1: Matthew Golden turns into a star. I know they like
Speaker 1: they are not going to have another super high priced
Speaker 1: acquisition anytime soon. You've paid the quarterback. You now have
Speaker 1: what will be the most expensive defensive player in football
Speaker 1: for the next few years, probably next couple at least.
Speaker 1: That and your rolling that's your team. It is a
Speaker 1: very it. If there was any question, not that there
Speaker 1: was any reason to have a question, but if there
Speaker 1: was any question on how much belief do the Packers
Speaker 1: have in Jordan Love, that got answered immediately because you
Speaker 1: don't make this move if you don't think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have a quarterback good enough to win four straight
Speaker 1: rounds or if we're you know, maybe three, we only
Speaker 1: have to win three straight rounds because you get the
Speaker 1: one seed. The schedule obviously for them, depending on how
Speaker 1: good you think the NFC North is, is brutal. But
Speaker 1: this is a seismic game changing player. And I had
Speaker 1: the Packers out of the playoffs before the trade. I
Speaker 1: have them in the playoffs now. But so that's if
Speaker 1: you had the Packers as a really good playoff team.
Speaker 1: But not quite in the super Bowl. This move to me,
Speaker 1: you can be like, no that they're in the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I had them out of the playoffs and one of
Speaker 1: the things I said was, I don't believe in the
Speaker 1: defense as much as everyone else because I think they're
Speaker 1: a corner or two short and I don't know they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to have a super impact pass rusher.
Speaker 1: But now they have one. So that's enough for you know.
Speaker 1: I moved them up a grade and a half based
Speaker 1: on this player. But if I had him out of
Speaker 1: the playoffs before, I don't now have them in the
Speaker 1: super Bowl. But this is as big of a swing
Speaker 1: as a team can make. And these guys at this
Speaker 1: age don't typically come available. And I mean Khalil Mack did,
Speaker 1: I understand, but Khalil Mack was not Micah Parsons. Jalen
Speaker 1: Ramsey did. And Jalen Ramsey, you know, they won a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. It didn't end grade in in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: but it worked out. While it maybe didn't end perfectly,
Speaker 1: they would do that trade again one hundred times out
Speaker 1: of one hundred, and as great as Ramsey is, I
Speaker 1: don't think he's Micah Parsons. And so to be able to.
Speaker 1: You typically only get guys like this when they're past
Speaker 1: their prime or because you drafted them, which is why
Speaker 1: for Dallas fans who have now traded Luka Doncic and
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons in the last year, have to be beside themselves.
Speaker 1: And I again, to briefly go back to the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: if the ultimate goal is winning a super Bowl, I
Speaker 1: don't given where they found themselves, I don't hate doing this,
Speaker 1: but if the ultimate goal is winning the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: you can't find yourself where you found yourself. You can't
Speaker 1: put yourself in this position. The other interesting note on
Speaker 1: this is why didn't anyone else trump this deal. I
Speaker 1: think it's noteworthy that Buffalo didn't come over the top
Speaker 1: because two first round picks and thirty year old D
Speaker 1: tackle Kenny Clark is a good you know, that's a
Speaker 1: good return, but it's not a holy shit look at
Speaker 1: what they paid return. And Jerry said in his press
Speaker 1: conference yesterday that you know, getting a quality D tackle
Speaker 1: was basically a prerequisite for this deal. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the the Bills have They just spent two draft picks
Speaker 1: on D tackles this year. They have day Kwon Jones,
Speaker 1: who they you know, signed, They obviously love Ed Oliver,
Speaker 1: like the Bills have depth there that they they could
Speaker 1: have And when I signed, when I say they signed
Speaker 1: Daikwon Jones, not this offseason, but they a guy they
Speaker 1: didn't draft, but they brought in a few years ago.
Speaker 1: The Bills are an interesting one. Now. Maybe they look
Speaker 1: at it like, hey, we took our swing on Joey Bosa.
Speaker 1: But and maybe they look at it as we tried
Speaker 1: it with Von Miller, different player, different circumstances, didn't work out.
Speaker 1: The Lions would have been and intriguing one. Maybe they
Speaker 1: feel like we've got to save our money for Hutchinson.
Speaker 1: We can't do it. But I'm a little surprised that
Speaker 1: this was the absolute best best the Cowboys could do.
Speaker 1: And I also think, and this is where criticizing the
Speaker 1: move is totally fair. If you're going to make this move,
Speaker 1: making it before the draft when a more teams I
Speaker 1: think would have been in the bidding, and b you
Speaker 1: have certainty of what draft pick you're getting back. Where
Speaker 1: did the Packers pick last year? Eighteenth? The the they
Speaker 1: picked twenty third. Sorry, like I'll it's unlikely that this
Speaker 1: pick they get back from Green Bay is much better
Speaker 1: than twenty three, and it's on the board that it's
Speaker 1: a bit worse, and so I'm a little like the
Speaker 1: Cowboys process obvious was disastrous. The end result, I don't
Speaker 1: think is. I just think, if we're being fair, had
Speaker 1: Jerry signed Micah to this exact deal that Green Bay
Speaker 1: is being lauded for, he would have been pilloried for.
Speaker 1: I just think that's reality now some of that he's
Speaker 1: earned himself, and Green Bay now just clearly clearly believes
Speaker 1: we can just go win the Super Bowl, and maybe
Speaker 1: they can. They won't be my pick, but and I
Speaker 1: don't want to. I want to be very fair with
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. This isn't a Super Bowl or bust
Speaker 1: trade this season, only because Micah probably be in Green
Speaker 1: Bay for the next decade. And I'm happy for Mica
Speaker 1: that he got this money and that he stays with
Speaker 1: a blue chip franchise. And it'll be very interesting going
Speaker 1: from the franchise that has the most kind of non
Speaker 1: football stuff going on around him to the franchise that
Speaker 1: has the least, and Packer fans will fing love him.
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons, a Green Bay Packer, talk about it more
Speaker 1: on the TV show in a bit and see you
Speaker 1: guys on Tuesday. What's right