As Cowboys fight for playoffs, Micah Parsons trade looms large

FRISCO, Texas -- Less than 24 hours after last week's blowout loss to the Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer attempted to remain positive about a defense that has been, to be polite, porous.

Asked if there is ever a time for drastic measures -- a firing, a benching, a release -- Schottenheimer assured that changes would be made.

"You can't come off a game like [giving up 44 points to the Broncos] and not expect there to be changes," he said. "And there will be changes, I can promise you that.

"We've already had some of those meetings, and we talked about those changes."

But Schottenheimer wasn't talking about changes associated with Tuesday's trade deadline at 4 p.m. ET. It was more about fixing the problem of yielding the second-most yards (404.6 per game) and points (31.3) in the NFL with the players already on the roster.

Help from within is on the way with key players returning from injury. But ESPN's Football Power Index gave Dallas (3-4-1) just an 18% chance of reaching the playoffs entering Week 9, which makes Monday's game against the Arizona Cardinals (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN) critical.

If the Cowboys fall short of the playoffs for the second year in a row, the August trade of Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers will loom as a major reason. But considering how the Cowboys played with Parsons aboard last season, would that be fair?

"You know, we're in the mode right now of we've got kind of a one-game season," Schottenheimer said of Monday's game.

He did not mean it in a win-or-else manner, noting that the Cowboys have their bye next week, which will give them a chance to take a breath before returning for "Monday Night Football" against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 17.

But with a stretch of three games in 12 days coming up against the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions, every game becomes more significant.

There are glaring numbers that tell a troubling story. Five of the eight opponents the Cowboys have faced registered season highs in points against Dallas. Opponents have scored a touchdown or a field goal on 49% of their possessions against the Cowboys, the highest rate in the NFL entering Week 9. Take out the wins against the offensively challenged New York Jets and Washington Commanders, who were without their top three receivers, and that jumps to 57%.

And while that played out, Parsons has been excelling on a Packers defense that is giving up the sixth-fewest yards (289.4) and 10th-fewest points (21.4) per game. Entering Week 9, Parsons had the best odds (+150) to win Defensive Player of the Year, per ESPN BET.

"It's tough because obviously it's a defensive game, but I do see a lot of good things [with the Cowboys]," Parsons said. "There's flashes. It's just all about consistency.

"Same with us. You'll see a bunch of good things, and then we'll do a bunch of bad things. I just think you've got to limit the bad things, and that's an 'everyone' thing."

Whether he would have leveled up the Cowboys' defense had he stayed, and whether Dallas can find answers at the trade deadline, the team's season sits in the shadow of the Parsons deal.

What if Parsons were still a Cowboy?

As talented as Parsons is, would he have changed the Cowboys' narrative? Instead of being ranked 31st in points and yards per game, would Parsons' impact have the Cowboys closer to average among NFL defenses? With Parsons playing 13 games last season, the Cowboys ranked 28th in yards and 31st in points per game.

After the 30-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Oct. 12, when the Cowboys allowed 216 rushing yards, Schottenheimer was asked if the defense would be any different with Parsons on the roster.

"I mean, I don't ... I don't really know," Schottenheimer said. "Micah's a great player. We've got other great players. But it takes 11 on defense. That is the thing that, again, nine, 10 guys on a football team, offense, defense, special teams, if one of those is a little off with their assignment, a little off with their alignment, then plays happen.

"And so I think it's more about the guys that are here, continuing to impress on them the importance of doing their job and doing it correctly and with the right fundamentals and technique. That's really what we're focused on."

Thoughts of what the defense could be with Parsons -- per ESPN's Bill Barnwell, Dallas had the best defense from 2021 to 2024 by EPA per play with Parsons on the field and the second worst without him -- have not crept into the heads of players, according to the Cowboys.

"He's a great player, definitely, but you can't really play the 'if' game," defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa said. "That's not something that you can ever do in life because that's a rabbit hole that goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

"Like the way I look at it is, bury the dead, feed the living. What is done is done. And you have to make the best of what you have in front of you."

There is another question that needs to be answered: Would Parsons have played at the start of the season if he were still with the Cowboys?

After his Green Bay debut, Parsons was asked if he would have played in Week 1 had he remained in Dallas.

"Man, I love football. I would've been playing. [Not participating in training camp] is just the hard part, the business side of it," Parsons said. "But, nah, there's nothing that would've kept me off the field. At the end of the day, this game is always bigger than us.

"I don't think I could watch my teammates go out there without me and go to war without me knowing I should be out there. It just wouldn't feel right for me. I'm just happy I'm with some teammates and an organization that wants me to be here and wants me to be on the field, so that's where we're at with that."

Multiple sources with the Cowboys said they wonder if Parsons would have followed that path had he remained.

In the week Parsons was dealt to the Packers (for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and first-round picks in 2026 and 2027), he visited renowned back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins in Los Angeles for recurring pain that he first acknowledged during the June minicamp as a reason for not practicing. Parsons did not practice during training camp in Oxnard, California, either, ostensibly going through a hold-in, which is when a player attends practices without participating to avoid being fined.

Parsons was diagnosed with a facet joint sprain, and before the trade, the Cowboys prescribed him a five-day course of prednisone, an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid, to help him recover.

Without the offer from the Packers, the Cowboys were content to see Parsons play the season on his fifth-year option in 2025. They also made it clear they knew they could employ the franchise tag for 2026 and 2027 if the sides couldn't come to an agreement on a new contract. The team has used that strategy before with high-profile players, including quarterback Dak Prescott.

Had Parsons opted to sit until he felt fully healthy, that likely would have triggered another round of issues between the player and the organization, as the Cowboys could have placed him on the non-football injury list and ultimately not paid him.

Given the fractious state of the relationship between the two sides at the time, would Parsons have been as effective as he has been with the Packers? Through seven games, Parsons -- who signed a four-year, $188 million extension at the time of the trade -- has 6.5 sacks, including a career-high three in a game two weeks ago against the Cardinals.

The Cowboys have 14 sacks this season, and only one player has more than 1.5: James Houston, who joined the team in July and has 3.5.

A trade deadline fix?

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones has consistently been asked about another trade, one that could improve the defense in Parsons' absence. Will Jones pull off another Amari Cooper-type trade the way the Cowboys did in 2018 to help the defense by righting the offense? The Cowboys won seven of their nine games after the Cooper trade with the receiver catching 53 passes for 725 yards and six scores.

Will Jones hold on to the draft picks from the Parsons trade and the future cap room created from the defensive end's departure to retool things in the offseason?

"I can tell you this right now: There is not a trade in my mind -- the beginning and end of one -- as we sit here and talk at all," Jones said last Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. "That's not a hedge. We just don't have one at this time that I would do."

Sources close to the situation say the Cowboys have been monitoring the trade market for potentially available defensive players for several weeks. In recent years, the Cowboys have trended toward judicious trade-deadline acquisitions -- younger players signed for multiple years as opposed to those on expiring contracts. Even the Cooper deal, their highest-profile deadline deal in recent memory, fit that description.

So acquiring a player such as Cincinnati defensive end Trey Hendrickson on an expiring contract would be a departure from the team's normally deliberate trade approach.

The Cowboys never thought the defense would be this poor after the Parsons deal, but they can't undo what has been done.

"Every year is different, and you are where you are," defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said. "The facts are the facts, and the realities are the realities. And we have to be better. That's where we are right now, but I believe in every player in the room. We got what we need in that room, and I'm excited about us improving every single week from this point."

Without a big-time addition through a trade, the Cowboys will hope for improvement from within. Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown is expected to make his season debut versus the Raiders in Week 11, but he is coming back from three torn ligaments in his right knee. Rookie cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. is closer to returning, but he has had only a handful of practices since he tore the ACL in his left knee last year at East Carolina. He, too, could be activated in time for the Raiders game.

Cornerback Trevon Diggs, a Pro Bowler before two injuries to his left knee the past two years, is eligible to return from injured reserve on Thanksgiving from a concussion and balky right knee. Jones said Diggs needs to be in better shape. Schottenheimer said the team has more information on how Diggs suffered the concussion in an accident at his home Oct. 16 but said he would let Diggs explain it when he meets with the media next.

"He's a really good player," Schottenheimer said, "and we just want to get him back and get him healthy and be able to help us finish strong because we feel like this thing's going to come down to the end of the season because it's a very competitive league."

But if the Cowboys are going to be able to finish strong, the offense will have to carry them to victory.

Can the offense push Dallas to the playoffs?

The defensive woes put pressure on the offense to be close to perfect. The Cowboys are second in the league offensively in yards (384.1) and points per game (30.8). The last team to average at least 30 that failed to make the playoffs was the 2004 Chiefs, according to ESPN Research. The Cowboys have scored a touchdown or field goal on 43 of 86 possessions this season, virtually identical to what the opposition has done to the Cowboys' defense.

But Schottenheimer does not concede that he needs to be more aggressive with his decision-making on fourth-down options or taking a near-automatic field goal attempt from Brandon Aubrey to cover for the shortcomings on the other side of the ball.

"I think we feel like we can go out and score anytime," Schottenheimer said. "That's the mindset that we take because of the talent that we have and our ability to score and strike pretty quickly and be efficient and match them. I don't get caught up in, 'Oh, I've got to call plays a certain way.' We've scored 40 points multiple times. We've scored 30 points multiple times. It'd be great to have a couple of games maybe 10-7. Sometimes we'll take those too.

"But we're prepared to play however we've got to play. As a playcaller, I focus on the moment, man, and if it's third-and-3, it's third-and-3. If it's first-and-10, it's first-and-10. If it's 21-3, it's 21-3, good guys or bad guys."

Before the three-game stretch against the Eagles, Chiefs and Lions, ESPN's FPI gives the Cowboys a 61.4% chance to beat the Cardinals and a 62.8% chance to beat the Raiders. If the Cowboys win both, it will mark the first time they have had consecutive victories since Weeks 15-16 last season.

If they don't, then the shade from the Parsons trade will only grow darker.

ESPN national NFL reporter Dan Graziano and ESPN Packers reporter Rob Demovsky contributed to this story.