Where Does Micah Parsons Trade Rank Among NFL's Most Shocking Blockbuster Deals?

On Thursday, the Dallas Cowboys made the near-unthinkable move: Trading star pass-rusher Micah Parsons to a playoff contender within their own conference.

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Green Bay Packers will acquire the four-time Pro Bowler in exchange for two first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark.

It's especially stunning that the deal came together so quickly. Just a week earlier, Dallas owner Jerry Jones was still discussing the possibility of using the franchise tag on Parsons in 2026 and 2027. The fact that it happened with an NFC rival is even more surprising.

Obviously, it's too early to know how the deal will play out for Parsons, the Packers and the Cowboys. However, it's not too soon to add a little context to the shock value.

Where does the Parsons trade rank among the NFL's most unexpected deals? Let's take a look.

8. Raiders Deal Randy Moss for Proverbial Pennies

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

Randy Moss is one of the greatest wide receivers to grace an NFL field, and that was already apparent in 2007, when the Las Vegas (then-Oakland) Raiders decided the future Hall of Famer wasn't proving to be a good investment.

Moss, who had been acquired from the Minnesota Vikings in a 2005 trade, recorded just over 1,500 yards in two seasons with the Raiders and simply did not seem to be happy as part of the franchise.

Even then, seeing a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro dealt for just a fourth-round pick during draft weekend was unexpected. Moss instantly became a force alongside Tom Brady, helping spark the Patriots' undefeated 2007 regular season.

During that 2007 campaign, Moss racked up 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns—nearly as many yards and double the touchdowns of what he produced for the Raiders across two seasons.

While Moss clearly showed he wasn't declining in 2007, he was 30 years old at the time and looking for a change of scenery. That's why the deal wasn't as surprising as others on our list.

7. Browns Swing and Miss on Deshaun Watson

AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski

There's no debating the Cleveland Browns' 2022 play for Deshaun Watson was one of the worst trades any NFL team has ever executed.

At the time, Watson had just skipped a full season for the Houston Texans and faced 23 lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual assault or misconduct.

To get Watson and a 2024 sixth-round pick, Cleveland surrendered first-round picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024, plus a 2022 fourth-round selection, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick. The Browns then signed him to a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract.

Nothing but disaster has followed the Browns quarterback situation since—unless you count a brief window of success with Joe Flacco fever or the promise of rookie Shedeur Sanders. The Watson experiment was an unequivocal failure.

At the time, though, this wasn't as much of a stunner as it is in retrospect. Watson was still only 26 and had three Pro Bowl campaigns on his resume and had led the NFL in passing yards the last time he had played. Cleveland was far from the only team that was interested, either.

What was surprising was the fact that the Browns were eager to land Watson while 2018 first overall pick Baker Mayfield was still on the roster—well, that and the fact that they closed a deal after Watson had reportedly narrowed his choices to the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints.

Teams regularly do ill-advised things in pursuit of a franchise quarterback, though.

6. Raiders Trade Khalil Mack in His Prime

AP Photo/Jason Behnken

The 2018 Khalil Mack trade is perhaps the closest historical comparison to the recent Dallas-Green Bay deal.

That deal saw the Chicago Bears send 2019 and 2020 first-round picks, along with a 2019 sixth-rounder and a 2020 third-rounder to the Raiders for Mack, a 2020 second-round pick and a conditional 2020 fifth-round pick.

At the time, Mack had just wrapped his fourth season and had 40.5 sacks on his resume, was a two-time first-team All-Pro and been named the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year.

While Mack had been holding out for a new contract, no one really expected Las Vegas to trade him. That's exactly what new head coach Jon Gruden did, though, flipping the switch on a trade on September 1.

While seeing Mack on the move was surprising, it was perhaps a little less shocking than the Parsons trade. For one, the Bears weren't particularly good at the time, so their picks appeared to be more valuable, though Chicago surprised with a 12-4 record in 2018.

Secondly, the Raiders at least sent Mack outside of their conference—where he stayed until he was dealt to the rival Los Angeles Chargers four years later.

5. Rams Trade Eric Dickerson In-Season

AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

The 1987 trade of running back Eric Dickerson was surprising for some reasons similar to those of the Parsons deal.

At the time, Dickerson had just turned 27, had led the league in rushing three times and had just been named 1986 Offensive Player of the Year.

Like Parsons, Dickerson seemed like a player who was near-untouchable. An ongoing contract dispute, however, forced the Los Angeles Rams to consider cashing in the offensive superstar. Three games into the 1987 season, they did exactly that.

The most surprising part of this deal was that the Indianapolis Colts managed to complete such a blockbuster trade in the middle of the season, a rarity in the NFL.

Getting Dickerson from L.A. to Indianapolis required the involvement of the Buffalo Bills and probably remains the wildest in-season trade of all time.

The Colts sent 1987 second overall pick Cornelius Bennett to the Bills as part of the deal—that was long before the rookie wage scale was implemented, and Bennett was not yet under contract. In return, Indy got running back Greg Bell, a 1988 first-round pick and 1989 first- and second-round selections.

Indianapolis then sent its return from Buffalo to L.A., along with running back Owen Gill and the Colts' first- and second-round picks in 1988 and a 1989 second-rounder.

The players Buffalo and Indianapolis got were fantastic, and the return for Los Angeles was substantial—never mind the fact that L.A. didn't exactly maximize its draft haul—making this seem like a rare win-win-win deal at the time. The sheer size and complexity of it were eye-popping.

4. Cowboys Trade Parsons for Two Picks and a Player

AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez

Micah Parsons

Several factors make the Parsons deal a true blockbuster. It's extremely rare for a 26-year-old pass-rusher, already halfway to 100 career sacks, to be traded—especially to an in-conference contender, and for what many consider just a decent return.

Two first-round picks is solid compensation, but those selections are likely to fall near the end of the draft order. Kenny Clark is a fantastic defensive tackle, but he'll turn 30 in October.

The most surprising thing, though, might be that Jerry Jones even did the deal at all. He recently hinted that if Dallas didn't reach a long-term deal with its star defender, using the franchise tag twice would be an option.

"We've really got three years to work this thing out," Jones said on Michael Irvin's YouTube channel last week (h/t ESPN's Todd Archer).

Now, the deal required a massive financial commitment from Green Bay, which likely limited what the Packers were able to justify offering. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Parsons has already agreed to a four-year, $188 million extension with his new team.

Dallas also avoids a contract that could be tough to swallow on top of those for CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott. There were logical reasons for both teams to make a trade. That doesn't make the late-August swap any less surprising.

3. Vikings Bet the Franchise on Herschel Walker

AP Photo/Duncan Livingston

Another large, complex trade worth mentioning is the infamous 1989 Herschel Walker deal: An in-season move for a 27-year-old running back that rocked the NFL landscape.

It's a deal that also kick-started the Cowboys' dynasty of the 1990s and haunted the Minnesota Vikings for years.

In order to add Walker, Minnesota surrendered linebacker Jesse Solomon, linebacker David Howard, cornerback Issiac Holt, defensive end Alex Stewart, 1990 first-, second- and sixth-round picks, 1991 first- and second-round picks and 1992 first-, second- and third-round selections.

The Vikings received Walker, two third-rounders, a fifth-rounder and a 10th-rounder back. They ended up getting a fifth-round pick from the Chargers as well, after running back Darrin Nelson—who was originally sent to Dallas in the trade—ended up in San Diego.

This proved to be a great deal for Dallas and a regrettable one for Minnesota, though it didn't appear quite so one-sided at the time. Each of the players the Cowboys received in the trade had conditional draft picks attached to them, most of which Dallas never relinquished because players were cut.

It wasn't the most shocking trade we've seen, though, because Walker was at least a proven commodity who was coming off of his second Pro Bowl season.

2. 49ers Bet Big on a Mystery QB

Jeff Haynes/AP Images for Panini

The reality is that NFL teams overpay all the time, especially for players who have proved themselves to be NFL stars. Seeing teams overpay to move up in the NFL draft isn't altogether unsurprising, either.

The San Francisco 49ers' choice to trade a massive set of picks to move up in the 2021 draft—without even knowing which quarterback would be available—was jaw-dropping.

San Francisco made a move up from 12th overall to third overall roughly a month before the draft. They did it by sending the 12th pick, a 2021 third-round pick and first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 to the Miami Dolphins.

Yes, Miami got more back for an unknown draft pick than the Cowboys just received for Parsons.

And San Francisco's target truly was a mystery. The 49ers ultimately settled on North Dakota State's Trey Lance, but there was plenty of smoke around Alabama's Mac Jones.

"The initial decision on who to take at No. 3 came down, indeed, to Lance and Mac Jones," Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer wrote a couple of years later.

The trade, of course, didn't work out for the 49ers, though they stumbled into Brock Purdy and have put the fiasco behind them. Back in 2021, though, it was shocking to see a team give up so much when so little was known about who would even be available.

1. Saints Trade Entire Draft Class for an Unproven Running Back

AP Photo/Stephen J. Carrera

This is it, history buffs. If you haven't guessed by now, our top spot goes to the one draft trade that makes the Lance gamble look like a reasonable bet.

Unlike other teams that traded up for unknown prospects, the Saints gave up an enormous amount of draft capital in exchange for a running back, Ricky Williams, who was proven at the college level but untested in the NFL.

Even in 1999, the NFL was a quarterback-driven league. Seeing a team go all-in on a running back, even the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, was stunning.

Williams wasn't even the first RB off the board, either. Edgerrin James was.

And the Saints did go all-in. To move up and select Williams fifth overall, New Orleans surrendered all of its remaining 1999 draft picks—it had already sent its second-round pick for wideout Eddie Kennison—along with 2000 first- and third-round picks to the Washington Commanders.

While this wasn't the worst trade on our list, it remains the most headline-grabbing deal we've seen. By betting so heavily on Williams, head coach Mike Ditka essentially tied his NFL future to the rookie—a fact that was immortalized in a certain ESPN Magazine cover photo.

It was a titanic gamble that was startling then and remains astounding when revisited through the lens of hindsight.