Mike Florio ,
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In the immediate aftermath of the Micah Parsons trade, the Cowboys held a press conference aimed at declaring victory. The real winners — the Packers and Parsons — didn’t feel compelled to say a word about it on Thursday.
Whether the Packers got the better of the deal remains to be seen. For now, it looks like the next in a line of rare but aggressive moves aimed at augmenting a high-end quarterback with a high-end defensive player. From Reggie White to Charles Woodson and now to Micah, the Packers don’t do it often. But when they do it, it tends to work.
It worked very well for Parsons, who gamed the current system in his favor. Which means that the system, in time, will probably change.
Here’s how the Micah Parsons project went.
First, he didn’t hold out. He showed up. He declined to practice. He created a series of distractions and challenges for the Cowboys.
Second, he didn’t cite his contract as the basis for his hold-in. If he had, at some point it would have had to end. Instead, he cited back tightness. It didn’t seem to be embellished, exaggerated, or fabricated.
Third, he didn’t blink. The Cowboys believed he’d eventually decide to play football, even at a fifth-year option salary far below the market as it existed before Micah blew the lid off of it. As Week 1 approached, it became obvious that Micah’s commitment to getting what he deserved would overcome his desire to play football.
Fourth, the Cowboys did blink. In lieu of sparking a showdown over whether Micah’s back was truly injured, they traded him at a time when they would have preferred to keep him for 2025 and to trade him after the season.
Parsons, when he did speak to reporters more than a day after the trade, provided an important P.S. to the process by saying, “ Physically, I’m great .” That raised eyebrows in the media. It also has raised eyebrows around the league.
The recent misadventures of the NFL Players Association included a slam-dunk grievance arising from former NFLPA president, and former NFLPA chief strategy officer, suggesting that unhappy players should fake injuries. With Micah claiming he’s physically great two days after a report emerged that he’d be seeking a second opinion, it looks like Parsons incorporated Tretter’s advice and brilliantly navigated the current system to get what he wanted.
Which leads to an obvious conclusion. The league will likely try to change the system in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In recent labor deals, the league has made it harder and harder to hold out. The 2020 CBA, which made it even harder to hold out, ushered in the age of the hold-in.
The next CBA will find a way to usher out the hold-in. Or the league will at least try to do that.
At the core, it’s about power. The NFL wants to keep it. The NFL doesn’t want the players to have it. Whether it’s through finagling fully-guaranteed contracts or through dictating which team they’ll play for or any other way to stand up to the system and win, the league wants to keep the teams in charge.
The hold-in process gives players who are willing to cite an injury (real or imagined) and not play real power. It ultimately gave Parsons the power to get out of Dallas.
Despite the spin from Jerry Jones that the trade makes the Cowboys better, they wanted to keep Parsons — at least for another season. Parsons stared them down. Parsons won.
The league will collectively attempt to ensure that doesn’t happen again, to the Cowboys or to any other team. Mark it down as one of the things the NFL will attempt to jam into the next labor deal.
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