playRob DemovskyCloseRob DemovskyESPN Staff WriterRob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. and Todd ArcherCloseTodd ArcherESPN Staff WriterTodd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003.
He joined ESPN in 2010.Multiple AuthorsOct 17, 2026, 06:00 AM ETOpen Extended ReactionsIf Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field were a made-for-TV movie, it would open like this: The home team’s starters would be introduced, and Micah Parsons would run out last to a raucous ovation while his former team stood and watched.Instead, Parsons will be without a uniform, will come out unannounced and his play will have zero impact on who wins the game. Nearly 14 months after Parsons was traded from the Cowboys to the Packers, and a little more than nine months removed from left ACL surgery, the All-Pro edge rusher has yet to be cleared to return from last year’s season-ending injury.Given everything that has happened for the two teams since that Aug. 28, 2025, blockbuster deal, Parsons’ presence still looms large over both franchises as they try to build championship contenders. Both teams are off to bumpy starts this season as Green Bay awaits Parsons’ return to action and Dallas’ defense continues to struggle.Parsons might still be the one player the Packers need to get back to a Super Bowl, but it didn’t happen in Year 1. The Packers were 9-3-1 when Parsons blew out his knee at the Denver Broncos in Week 15, and they didn’t win another game — including an opening-round playoff loss.
They’re off to a 3-2 start this year while they wait for Parsons’ return, which could still be weeks away.Meanwhile, the Cowboys had arguably the worst defense in the NFL last season, and at 2-3 this season, they’re still trying to remake their defense into what owner and general manager Jerry Jones envisioned when he shipped Parsons to the Packers.Just like last season’s 40-40 tie — when Parsons had a sack and three tackles in his first matchup against the Cowboys — Sunday’s game (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) will not reveal a winner in the trade, but what does it mean for both franchises a year later?Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said he will miss being able to play against his former teammate.”Wishing him all the best and getting healthy,” Prescott said. “Caught up with him a lot this offseason and here in Dallas while he was rehabbing, so he knows I support him in that.”But at the end of the day, it’s the Cowboys versus the Packers. It’s not me versus Micah, or the Cowboys versus Micah.
It’s about us going in and getting to win.”How the Parsons trade has affected the CowboysSince the trade, the Cowboys dealt for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. After signing him to a three-year, $105 million extension in August, Jones said the Parsons trade could not have worked out better, but he stopped short of saying the Cowboys won the deal.In addition to defensive tackle Kenny Clark, the Cowboys received the Packers’ first-round picks in 2026 and 2027.Last season, the Cowboys flipped the better of the 2027 first-rounders to the New York Jets for Williams and their 2026 second-round pick. With the No. 26 pick in this year’s draft, the Cowboys added pass rusher Malachi Lawrence, who has only one sack, one tackle for loss and seven quarterback pressures but is expected to see more playing time Sunday.Jones went so far as to compare the Parsons trade to the 1989 trade of running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings that helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in a four-year span in the 1990s.”You could say those picks got us key players, but the main thing that the Herschel Walker trade did, it caused me to be more aggressive and caused us to, if you will, take more risk because we had more picks,” Jones said in August. “It’s like going to Las Vegas with some extra money in your pocket.”In a way this actually created a mental part to us and to my role in it, to step out and make the moves and take, if you will, risks that are involved to be where we are today with a complete makeover of the defense.”But the makeover, to be kind, remains a work in progress.Last season, the Cowboys allowed a franchise-record 511 points and were 30th in yards allowed per game.
After the season, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus was fired, and only one defensive coach remains from last year’s staff (assistant linebackers coach J.J. Clark).Defensive coordinator Christian Parker came from the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was the passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2024 and 2025. He brought a new scheme that has had some strong moments — among them two fourth-and-1 stops of Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry in Week 3 and improved third-down work at times — but has not been consistent.Through five games, the Cowboys have allowed 395.4 yards per game, which ranks 31st in the league. Four of their five opponents have had a season high in yardage.
They are allowing 168.4 rushing yards per game (32nd) and 27.2 points per game (26th). Dating back to last season, the Cowboys have allowed 20 or more points in each of their past 12 games, matching a team record.This week, Dallas added longtime NFL coach Mike Pettine, a former Packers defensive coordinator, as a senior defensive assistant to help Parker.”We have to play better all across the boards,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “I think [Parsons is] a terrific player. I’m looking forward to seeing him, but I like the picks that we got from Micah.
I think we’ve done some really great things getting those picks.”And I hope that when it’s all said and done, it goes to show that that made a big difference because I do feel that way when you look at the guys who we were able to add to our roster.”Yet that difference hasn’t been reflected in takeaways or sacks.During Parsons’ tenure in Dallas after being drafted No. 12 in 2021, the Cowboys averaged 1.72 takeaways per game. Since the trade, they have averaged .64. With Parsons on the roster, the Cowboys had three or more sacks 33 times (48.5%), but in the 22 games since the trade, the Cowboys have reached that mark seven times (31.8%). With Parsons in Dallas, the Cowboys were held to one sack or fewer 29.4% of the time.
Without him, that figure is 52.3%.How the Parsons trade has affected the PackersIn Green Bay, the jolt that Parsons’ arrival gave to the locker room was unlike anything many of the players had ever felt.”S—, his presence,” Packers All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney said at the time. “Just being Micah Parsons. When you get a guy like that, of that talent, you can put him out there and tell him to just stand there. And before the play is snapped, they’re going to be looking for him because if you’re not prepared for him, it’s not going to be good for you.”Or as Packers coach Matt LaFleur said: “He definitely has an aura about him.”Parsons delivered on the promise initially.
He recorded 12.5 sacks before his left knee buckled in the 14th game of the season. Despite missing the last three games, he still led the NFL with 64 quarterback pressures, according to ESPN Analytics. The problem was, the Packers didn’t win another game, including the deflating playoff loss to the Chicago Bears in the wild-card round, when they allowed 25 fourth-quarter points.The trade meant the Packers went into this past offseason without a first-round pick. But general manager Brian Gutekunst believed he had a roster that wasn’t in need of many players, as evidenced by him trading away more picks and drafting six players — his smallest class since taking over in 2018.
He used his first three picks on defensive players — cornerback Brandon Cisse (Round 2), defensive tackle Chris McClellan (Round
