Nick Wright had strong words for his colleagues in sports media after watching how they covered the Micah Parsons trade saga.
The Fox Sports host went on The Dan Patrick Show and criticized how media outlets spent four years covering the Dallas Cowboys and Micah Parsons without questioning his overall impact, then immediately started debating his value once Jerry Jones traded him to Green Bay.
“I was so disgusted, truly disgusted, with our colleagues in the media,” Wright told the former SportsCenter anchor. “We have talked more Cowboys in the last four years, and more Micah than any other team. And more Micah Parsons than any defensive player in football. And not in a single segment did any analyst on any network have this take: ‘You know, I accept he’s a great pass-rusher, but if you look at his run-stuff rate, really is he overrated?'”
For months leading up to the trade, sports media coverage largely treated Parsons as an elite, franchise-changing player. The focus remained on contract negotiations and whether Dallas would pay him, not whether he deserved the money being discussed. Nobody brought up his run-stopping numbers or questioned his overall impact.
Then Aug. 28 happened. Jones shipped Parsons to Green Bay for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks, claiming Dallas needed to improve against the run. Within days, the same outlets that spent years treating Parsons like an untouchable star were suddenly asking if he was actually that good.
“Jerry Jones loses a negotiation and trades him and says, ‘Well, we were trying to stop the run.’ And for a week, the whole media had a fever dream where it was like, ‘Micah Parsons, is he good? Differing opinions,'” Wright said.
The flip was especially obvious because it happened right after Jones justified the trade by saying Dallas needed to stop the run. If run defense was really the issue, why were media outlets suddenly questioning whether the guy they’d been calling elite for four years was actually that good?
Wright looked at the compensation differently from most analysts. He pointed out that Kenny Clark is “such a good player” that “if you say, I’ll give you Kenny Clark and two first round picks, you can get a player like Micah Parsons.”
That’s exactly what happened, except Dallas was the team giving up Parsons.
According to Jay Glazer, the Eagles actually offered more than Green Bay’s package, but Jones wouldn’t trade within the NFC East. So Dallas potentially took less to avoid helping a rival, then tried to spin it as addition by subtraction. Wright saw this and didn’t buy the spin about needing run defense. The Cowboys were terrible against the run in 2024, but that doesn’t automatically mean trading your best player for a run-stuffer was smart.
When Parsons finally played for Green Bay, he looked exactly like the player everyone said he was before the trade. Two sacks in his debut, completely disrupting Detroit’s offense, making the Packers’ defense look different immediately. Dan Patrick compared his impact to Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, and Ed Reed. Green Bay didn’t hesitate to pay what Dallas wouldn’t. The Packers signed him to a four-year, $188 million deal, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
“I was really happy that Micah made the impact he did because he deserved to,” Wright said.
Whether you agree with Wright’s media critique or not, Parsons sure looked like a guy worth the money in Week 1.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.