The Green Bay Packers more than made headlines with a stunning Micah Parsons trade – they captured the attention of the sports media world and propelled themselves into Super Bowl contention. If you take a look online, everyone seems to be in agreement about the situation – the Packers are going to be scary, and Dallas did a horrific job of getting good value in return for their best player. However, is the latter part actually true?
Important Context for the Micah Parsons Trade
Dating back to 2024, Parsons hoped to sign an extension with Dallas. However, Jerry Jones and company were unwilling to meet his lofty terms. In July of 2025, over a year after the initial negotiations began, Parsons continued to be frustrated by negotiations and watched TJ Watt, a player of similar caliber at the same position, ink a 3-year, 123-million-dollar extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Parsons surely had the goal of topping that deal in mind. But the Cowboys weren’t going to budge.
On August 1st, Parsons officially requested a trade from the Cowboys and said “I no longer want to be here” in Dallas. Thus, the market officially opened.
In some trade scenarios, it’s fair to wonder what type of market even existed for the player. In the case for Parsons, the market was immediate, large, and consisted of multiple contending teams, such as Buffalo, Baltimore, and Green Bay. Ultimately, it appears the Packers were the team willing to make the highest offer, sending two 1st-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas in exchange for Parsons.
How Much Are 1st-Round Picks Actually Worth in the NFL?
Discourse about the trade appears to be unanimously on the side of “the Cowboys got fleeced” and that Green Bay was lucky that Jerry Jones was stupid enough to agree to such an underwhelming haul. But is that actually true?
NFL fans who also follow the NBA are used to seeing 1st-round draft selections flying around on a consistent basis. Every trade deadline and offseason, NBA franchises deal sometimes dozens of 1st-round draft selections. Dallas fans are very aware of this, having given up their face-of-the-franchise Luka Dončić just months earlier for what might be equated to 5 or more 1st-round picks.
However, the NFL is not the NBA. The fact is that NFL teams rarely trade 1st-round picks. For example, just two years ago, the Packers themselves were unable to add a 1st-rounder in the monumental Aaron Rodgers deal – they merely swapped 1sts with the New York Jets and acquired a 2nd-rounder as well as other late-round selections.
The last time an NFL team traded a 1st-round pick for a player was November 2022, almost three years ago. In the trade, the Denver Broncos sent edge rusher Bradley Chubb to Miami. For any amount of 1st-round picks to be traded in 2025 is already historic, let alone multiple picks being included in the same trade.
2022 saw multiple other players get traded for 1st-round picks. The list is not very long, and outside of Philadelphia’s move to get AJ Brown, all of the deals fall somewhere between “aged poorly” and “unmitigated disaster.” Both of the deals involving more than one pick were in exchange for “franchise QBs” (or so Denver and Cleveland thought).
1 first-round pick: Marquise Brown, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Davante Adams
2 first-round picks: Russell Wilson
3 first-round picks: Deshaun Watson
Clearly, NFL teams are not the best at judging which players are actually worth 1st-round picks when looking at recent history. So much so that no team has felt comfortable involving one in a trade in 32 months.
1st-Round Picks Do Not Get Traded Very Often in the NFL
In the last two years, big-name players like Laremy Tunsil, Stefon Diggs, Brian Burns, Montez Sweat, and Leonard Williams have all been moved without any 1st-round picks being necessary. 2022 saw All-Pros like Christian McCaffrey and Roquan Smith be dealt without the need of a 1st. Exactly how much more valuable is Parsons compared to those players?
If mock trades and rumors had their way, the Packers would have likely sacrificed the draft capital necessary to acquire Parsons long ago. After all, Packers fans are just months removed from begging Brian Gutekunst to trade for wide receiver DK Metcalf, with many feeling that using a 1st-round pick to get the deal done was more than fair.
In the end, Metcalf was dealt to Pittsburgh for essentially a 2nd-round pick. Earlier, wideout Deebo Samuel, who some NFL experts thought was worth a 1st-rounder, was traded for just a 5th-round pick. Clearly, the NFL does not think that 27-year-old Pro-Bowl wide receivers are worth 1st-round picks. But what about a 26-year-old edge rusher who has already made 1st-team All-Pro multiple times?
Parsons plays one of the most important positions in football. Theoretically, he has several years left in his prime. In a world where few players are as valuable as a franchise quarterback, Parsons is one of those who transcends into the upper stratosphere. He is somewhere above multi-time Pro-Bowlers like the aforementioned Tunsil or Williams, but somewhere below franchise QBs like Wilson (remember, the Broncos were praised for the Wilson trade when it happened). Is multiple 1st-round picks plus a talented veteran in Kenny Clark really far off from what is fair trade value?
Earlier this offseason, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell made a comprehensive list of every NFL player he believes would fetch a 1st-round pick in a trade situation. He appraised Parsons as being worth “two first-round picks and more.” It turns out Barnwell was absolutely correct.
Did the Dallas Cowboys Get Fair Value From Green Bay Packers in Micah Parsons Deal?
It’s very safe to assume that Dallas did not turn away offers that were much higher than what Green Bay tabled. While it is possible that they could have played hardball and negotiated for slightly more value, it is very unlikely that any of the many teams interested in Parsons offered more than two 1st-rounders.
While seemingly most fans do not agree with the trade, NFL insider Peter Schrager is pretty confident that many NFL general managers would have accepted such a deal for Parsons.
Were Cowboys winning the Super Bowl this year? Did they win big with Micah Parsons? Jerry is rolling the dice because he didn’t want to pay Micah and because he can. Go ask other GMs if they’d take 2 1st rounders, Clark, and $47 m for guy…you’d be surprised how many say yes.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) August 28, 2025
It’s easy to laugh at Jerry Jones and think that Dallas should not have accepted only two 1st-round picks, history seems to be more aligned with how Barnwell and Schrager view the deal. It is exceedingly rare that a player of Parsons’ talents is available for trade, and in actuality, it is almost as exceedingly rare that an NFL team feels comfortable using multiple first-round picks to acquire a star player. Upon closer inspection, the value is not as lopsided as one might think.
Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
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