Bad news for Bears: Micah Parsons traded to rival Packers

Jerry Jones’ Texas-sized standoff with the most dangerous pass-rusher in the NFL ended up as a nightmare for the Bears, who will spend the next five years — at least — watching Micah Parsons chase quarterback Caleb Williams.

The Cowboys agreed to trade Parsons to the Packers on Thursday for two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The Packers agreed to sign Parsons to a four-year, $188 million extension with $136   million in guarantees — the most ever for a non-quarterback.

The trade ends an impasse between Parsons and the Cowboys that turned nasty, with Jones saying he agreed to a deal with a player but Parsons saying Jones needed to work with his agent.

“I never wanted this chapter to end, but not everything was in my control,” Parsons said in a statement. “My heart has always been here [in Dallas], and it still is. Through it all, I never made any demands. I never asked for anything more than fairness. I only asked that the person I trust to negotiate my contract be part of the process.”

For the Bears, it’s the worst possible landing spot for Parsons. The NFC North was the best division in the NFL last year — with the Bears the only one of the four teams to miss the playoffs — and it has only improved. Within an hour of the deal, the Packers became the gambling favorite to win the division.

Parsons, 26, gives the Packers — the NFL’s youngest team — the star pass rusher they have lacked in recent years. Over four seasons since the Cowboys drafted him 12th overall in 2021 out of Penn State, he has 52½ sacks, four Pro Bowl nods and two first-team All-NFL honors. He never has had fewer than 12 sacks in a season — a scary thought for Bears left tackle Braxton Jones, who won the starting job seemingly by default. Jones already has to deal with the Vikings’ Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard, who finished in the top 10 in sacks last season, and the Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson, who was leading the NFL when he suffered a season-ending leg injury in Week 6.

Parsons has a chance to be the next-generation version of Reggie White, who in 1993 shocked the football world by signing a free-agent contract with the Packers to become the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback. Over the next six years, he set the Packers’ franchise sacks record and helped lead them to the championship in Super Bowl XXXI.

Or perhaps Parsons will be the next Khalil Mack. The closest comparison to Thursday’s blockbuster trade is the one the Bears made for the star linebacker, then 27, on Labor Day weekend in 2018. In a deal that netted them the draft picks later used on tight end Cole Kmet and tackle Arlington Hambright, the Bears traded 2019 and 2020 first-round picks (running back Josh Jacobs) and cornerback Damon Arnette), a 2019 sixth-rounder (cornerback Blessuan Austin, who went to the Jets) and a 2020 third-rounder (receiver Bryan Edwards). They then gave Mack a six-year, $141 million extension, which was briefly the record for a defensive player.

Of the group above, only Jacobs went on to sustained NFL success. He made three Pro Bowls and is now the starting running back for, of all teams, the Packers.

Meanwhile, the Bears didn’t do as much damage with Mack as they envisioned when then-coach Matt Nagy blared Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” from his car, picked up then-general manager Ryan Pace and went to the Deer Park Inn in Lake Forest to introduce themselves to Mack.
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The Bears won the NFC North with Mack in his first season but didn’t win a playoff game during his stay. Two months after landing the GM job in 2022, Ryan Poles started the Bears’ rebuild when he traded Mack to the Chargers.

Poles was asked Tuesday if the Bears had been tempted to pursue a big-name defensive end this year. Parsons and the Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson were both “holding in” during training camp while angling for new contracts.

“We always will call and see what the situation is and then weigh that against our short-term and long-term decision-making process, and does it make sense?” Poles said. “What does it take to acquire a player? If the player’s here, what does it cost [in salary]? And then say, ‘OK, for where we are, is that something we want to do?’

“We’re also trying to find, is it the right culture fit? There’s more levels to just grabbing the talent and [bringing] it in. There’s some impact things that happen in your locker room and on the field and your salary cap that, yeah, he could give you a little burst of energy, but long-term, does it make sense for you, or is it going to be a derailer down the road when you’re trying to sustain?”

The Bears would have needed to perform salary gymnastics to make a Parsons contract work, Only four teams have less salary-cap space than the Bears do this year, according to Spotrac.com.

But even if they could have made the money work, the Bears probably weren’t one Parsons away from winning a Super Bowl in coach Ben Johnson’s first season at the helm.

Not that it makes this trade to the Packers feel any better.