The blockbuster trade that sent Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday unsurprisingly elicited plenty of reaction.
But while most of it has come in the form of criticism of the Cowboys, Dallas has at least one prominent supporter in the form of Kirk Herbstreit.
Appearing on Get Up on Friday morning, ESPN’s lead college football analyst expressed his belief that the deal is ultimately a net positive for the Cowboys. And not just because Dallas is adding two first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark while also clearing cap space, but also because Herbstreit seemingly had concerns about Parsons’ behind-the-scenes approach.
“I mean, if you’re just going to look at it from the Xs and Os standpoint, you lose a great player physically and obviously he can take a game over,” the NFL on Prime Thursday Night Football analyst said. “But I look at this in a different way. This is a new coach trying to build a new culture, and your alpha, your best player is sitting out in a negotiation that’s not working out. And not only that, but just some of the optics of it with some of the things he did during camp, it just wasn’t good.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I applaud Dallas in letting [Micah Parsons] go.”@KirkHerbstreit feels the Cowboys did the right thing in trading Micah Parsons 👀 pic.twitter.com/sIStR0t01A
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 29, 2025
While Herbstreit acknowledged that there’s “always” drama surrounding Dallas, he seemed to place most of the blame in this particular situation on Parsons. He also expressed his belief that the Cowboys may ultimately improve on the field despite parting ways with their All-Pro pass-rusher.
“If they’re ever going to be a real contender, not only in their division, but the NFC, they’ve got to get better defensively. Now you say, ‘how do you get better by losing Micah Parsons?’ I think you’re just looking at that like physically what he does, but what does he do behind the scenes to the culture of who the Dallas Cowboys are?” the former Ohio State quarterback said. “For Dallas not willing to sign him, it must have been significant enough to say, ‘hey, let’s get rid of this guy even though he’s a great player, and let’s try to build this thing kind of like the little engine that could, us against the world type of thing.’
“And I know it sounds crazy, but I applaud Dallas in letting him go and trying to build a culture of team instead of an individual. And we’ll see what happens with Dallas this year. But I don’t think this is a play for 2025. I think it’s a play for ’25, ’26, ’27, and beyond.”
By his own admission, Herbstreit’s analysis is an outlier amid a sea of Cowboys criticism. And to that end, it’s somewhat curious that he would be placing so much blame for the circus surrounding Parsons’ contract negotiations on the player, when such distractions have seemingly been the norm under Jerry Jones’ ownership.
It’s also worth noting that Herbstreit has his own history with Parsons, as the former 5-star prospect’s visit to the College GameDay set in 2016 played a role in recruiting violations resulted in Ohio Sate agreeing to stop recruiting prospect. That’s not to say that incident helped inform his analysis. But it seems clear that Herbstreit’s apparent concerns about his personality outweigh his evaluation of his on-field performance.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.