2026 Random Cowboys Stuff Thread...

Simpleton said:
Who here would trade Quinnen, Clark and Lawrence for Parsons right now?

Pre-ACL? There's an argument, but post-ACL I'm not even sure I'd trade Williams for Parsons straight up, especially when you factor in the actual contracts each of them have now.

I still think they should've gotten a little more for Parsons at the time, and of course there was no foresight whatsoever as with most things they do, but it has turned out pretty well.
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It’s not those three straight up, cause we had to pay more to get Williams, but the ACL injury has made it more even.
 
Smitty said:
It’s not those three straight up, cause we had to pay more to get Williams, but the ACL injury has made it more even.
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Quinnen, Clark and Lawrence for Parsons and a 2nd then, still not even a question in my mind given the ACL.

Assuming the pick we send the Jets next year isn't significantly different from the pick we end up keeping.
 
Good deal. I could see him signing another 2-3 year deal after this depending on how much he loves football and the shape he keeps himself in.
 
Simpleton said:
He has two years left, so this is 3 tacked on for a total of 5, and two years from now I'd imagine DT's of his caliber will be getting 40+/year, so it's a very nice deal that also opens up cap now.

Hopefully these morons have figured out the value of doing deals like this with extra years on the current deal.
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Ok, sweet. That's what I was hoping. Maybe this will start a trend, much better than waiting til the last possible minute every time.
 
Cujo said:
Ok, sweet. That's what I was hoping. Maybe this will start a trend, much better than waiting til the last possible minute every time.
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Also didn't hurt that the player wasn't demanding absolute top dollar and didn't have an asshole agent.
 
Cotton said:
All joking aside, I am going to need the room for a second.
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Or more like this

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Chocolate Lab said:
Also didn't hurt that the player wasn't demanding absolute top dollar and didn't have an asshole agent.
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Speaking of Parsons, one thing that stood out after the extension was a Stephen quote where he basically said that "we haven't had a lot of leadership on defense the last few years", and do now with Quinnen and a few others.

In hindsight I think that was a big part of why they were sort of hesitant to give Parsons whatever he wanted, and I think it's pretty obvious what the situation was given how close Parsons was to Diggs, the little spat he had with Hooker either after the 2022 or 2023 playoffs, etc.

It was fun in the moment watching Parsons and those Quinn defenses dominate and run up the score on shitty QB's/offenses, but it was very obviously fool's gold all the way through.
 
I definitely think that. I always thought that was Jerry's hesitation, and I'm not sure he was wrong about it. I think the going back on his word about the contract was just the last straw in that department.

I didn't post it because it's Mickey, but he was saying on one of the podcasts a few days ago that everything seemed more competitive this camp, and he thought it was because too many young guys last year saw Diggs slacking and wondered why they had to work hard if he wasn't... And then Mickey threw Micah in there with Diggs on that. Again, it's Mickey, but as tight as those two were, I don't doubt it at all.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
I definitely think that. I always thought that was Jerry's hesitation, and I'm not sure he was wrong about it. I think the going back on his word about the contract was just the last straw in that department.

I didn't post it because it's Mickey, but he was saying on one of the podcasts a few days ago that everything seemed more competitive this camp, and he thought it was because too many young guys last year saw Diggs slacking and wondered why they had to work hard if he wasn't... And then Mickey threw Micah in there with Diggs on that. Again, it's Mickey, but as tight as those two were, I don't doubt it at all.
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Negative attitudes spread like an infection. Everybody seems more at ease this year, even the coaches. Hopefully, it shows up on the field.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
I definitely think that. I always thought that was Jerry's hesitation, and I'm not sure he was wrong about it. I think the going back on his word about the contract was just the last straw in that department.

I didn't post it because it's Mickey, but he was saying on one of the podcasts a few days ago that everything seemed more competitive this camp, and he thought it was because too many young guys last year saw Diggs slacking and wondered why they had to work hard if he wasn't... And then Mickey threw Micah in there with Diggs on that. Again, it's Mickey, but as tight as those two were, I don't doubt it at all.
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There were random rumblings over the years that the team was sort of wary of Parsons, at the time I thought it was just rumor mongering but in hindsight it was probably true. If a deal had gotten done with Parsons I don't think it would've been as toxic as it got, but obviously Diggs was completely off the reservation either way and at best would've only been masking it.

I think the fact that Parsons is undersized and sort of a one-trick pony just added to all of it as well, because there's no way he's going to maintain his effectiveness into his early 30's the way bigger DE's/3-4 OLB's can.

The defensive talent is obviously very far from perfect but I give the FO credit for being realistic that they were pretty far down the road on being heavily invested in the wrong types on defense (Diggs with character issues, Parsons being so undersized and also having possible character issues) and course correcting to bring in dependable external vets who are properly sized to stabilize the situation.
 
Also gotta give old man Zimmer some credit, amidst all this mismanagement and rot on the defensive side he had them playing like a roughly average unit over the second half of 2024. Given what we know now I think that's a pretty big accomplishment.
 
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Simpleton said:
Also gotta give old man Zimmer some credit, amidst all this mismanagement and rot on the defensive side he had them playing like a roughly average unit over the second half of 2024. Given what we know now I think that's a pretty big accomplishment.
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He did an admirable job.
 
Simpleton said:
Speaking of Parsons, one thing that stood out after the extension was a Stephen quote where he basically said that "we haven't had a lot of leadership on defense the last few years", and do now with Quinnen and a few others.

In hindsight I think that was a big part of why they were sort of hesitant to give Parsons whatever he wanted, and I think it's pretty obvious what the situation was given how close Parsons was to Diggs, the little spat he had with Hooker either after the 2022 or 2023 playoffs, etc.

It was fun in the moment watching Parsons and those Quinn defenses dominate and run up the score on shitty QB's/offenses, but it was very obviously fool's gold all the way through.
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Amazing how we loved his attitude for years and thought it was a hunger for winning.
 
Smitty said:
Amazing how we loved his attitude for years and thought it was a hunger for winning.
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He was hungry to be great but I don't think he was a leader. He was best boys with a certified nut case in Diggs, he talked shit about the rest of his teammates not playing well even though he himself didn't do much of anything in the Packers playoff game I believe, and he apparently had issues with Lawrence.

The rumblings were behind the scenes so we wouldn't have really seen it, but the way he went out kind of showed his true colors and what he was really about.

The talent is amazing, but not especially well rounded, and combined with the rest of this stuff I don't blame them for trading him.
 
Simpleton said:
Quinnen, Clark and Lawrence for Parsons and a 2nd then, still not even a question in my mind given the ACL.

Assuming the pick we send the Jets next year isn't significantly different from the pick we end up keeping.
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Sure, but Quinnen, Clark and Lawrence for healthy Parsons and Jacob Rodriguez is much closer.

Also keep in mind that still doesn't quite encapsulate it, because we are giving up whichever pick is better next year. In theory that's a difference that has to be taken into account.

I still don't love the constant doubling down on the future but if they sign Pickens long term ("we need Micah's cap space to spend on lots of players instead of just 1") then I'll concede they've done a decent job in making the Parsons mess come out ok.
 
boozeman said:
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Listen, I like the player and the contract, but let's tap the breaks here on calling QW "arguably the league's most disruptive force."

He had 1.5 sacks for us in 7 games last year. I think we're HOPING he can get BACK to being ONE OF the most disruptive defenders in the league. And there's decent grounds to believe that hope isn't far fetched, even likely.

The defense was a mess and I'm not drawing conclusions overall, but he also has to be better personally, for the defense to take a leap.

He has to be a 6 sack guy. Ideally he'd be like an 8 sack guy. I'm not demanding 10+ but if he was gonna be a game changer in there, him getting 8 sacks would be really nice.
 
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