Mailbag: Stepping back to move forward?

(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)

I know people are hating this trade of Micah Parsons to the Packers, and I get it. However, I'm fine with it. You can't pay everyone generational money and still field a full team. This is an offensive-driven league, and sometimes you need to take a step back in order to move forward. Your thoughts? – John Murray/Canutillo, TX

Patrik: It's easy to plaster the salary cap pie as the reasoning for this trade, but it isn't. Jerry Jones and the Cowboys already said they had a top-of-the-market offer on the table for him earlier this year, and extending him would've added, not deducted, $18 million to the 2025 salary cap. The reason for this trade was irreconcilable differences within the relationship — Jones feeling Parsons reneged on a handshake deal and Parsons feeling attacked thereafter. I am of the mindset that no one can logically, on Aug. 28, say the Cowboys are a better team without a generational pass rusher that hadn't even hit his peak yet.

That said, the stable of current pass rushers will likely get after the quarterback at a more than solid level, but does anyone invoke the fear into offenses that Parsons did? At the moment, that answer is no, and until/unless that person or those persons make themselves known over the next several months (or more), the Cowboys are, on paper, as you agreed, taking a major step back. Sometimes it's needed to move forward, I agree on that premise, but not always, and never when the characterization for the reason for moving backwards isn't correct (again, this wasn't about money or the salary cap).

Nick: I keep hearing people say it's an offense-driven league. And that's basically true, but that's also the reason that you make sure and find yourself a really good pass-rusher off the edge to help combat with that. Sometimes, one person can wreck a game and we've seen Micah do just that.

But that's not really the question. What you asked was if they need to move backwards to move forward. Well, the ultimate goal is for them to move forward but make no mistake, they definitely took a step back. No offense to Kenny Clark, but that 1-for-1 player doesn't make the Cowboys better right now. Maybe they will stop the run better but I'm not seeing an immediate change in the Cowboys' defense now because what they gained inside, they've lost on the outside. Sure, they have some depth at defensive end, but that was with Micah in the picture. Now, everyone amongst the Dante Fowler, Sam Williams, Ezeiruaku and Kneeland group all slide up and I'm not sure that's not just middle-of-the-pack at best in terms of a collect group of pass rushers.

Overall, getting two No. 1 picks can be beneficial but right now, the Cowboys lost one of the best football players they've ever had and so undoubtedly they took a step back.