Packers star pass rusher Micah Parsons will line up Monday night against the Eagles. The Cowboys went out of their way last summer to ensure Parsons would not play for the division rival Eagles -- at least not anytime soon.
Unbeknownst to everyone except the few who crafted the August blockbuster trade that sent Parsons from Dallas to Green Bay was a little-known poison-pill condition that, according to sources involved with the deal, prevents the All-Pro from playing for Philadelphia in the immediate future.
The previously unreported poison-pill condition states that if the Packers decide to trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East division -- the Eagles tried to trade for him last summer before being rebuffed -- then Green Bay would owe Dallas its 2028 first-round draft pick, sources involved in the trade told ESPN.
The poison-pill condition also was used on Kenny Clark, the other player involved in the trade, according to sources. If the Cowboys trade Clark to a team in the NFC North, they then would owe the Packers their 2028 first-round pick.
League sources said these poison-pill conditions clearly and smartly were put into place to block Parsons from winding up in Philadelphia, not far from where he grew up and one day wanted to play. The poison-pill conditions apply to this season and 2026, according to sources, meaning the Packers don't have a clear path to trade Parsons to another NFC East team until 2027 at the earliest.
The Packers had deployed a poison pill in a trade before -- to try to block Brett Favre from going to the Minnesota Vikings.
In August 2008, when the Packers Bay traded Favre to the New York Jets, they included a provision in the language of those trade papers that said if the Jets turned around and traded Favre to an NFC North rival -- such as the Vikings team that wanted the three-time MVP quarterback -- then the Jets would owe the Packers three first-round picks.
The Packers and Cowboys clearly remembered the provision in the Favre deal and opted to include it in the Parsons-Clark trade this past summer, only no one discussed it publicly.
But other teams around the league noticed that in the NFL's database which tracks each teams draft picks, there were conditions attached to the Cowboys and Packers 2028 first-round picks that prevented them from being traded.
The issue got even more attention last week, when the Cowboys traded their 2026 second-round pick and 2027 first round pick, along with defensive tackle Mazi Smith, to the Jets in exchange for three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
In that and any other deal, the Cowboys were prohibited from trading their 2028 first-round pick that league sources noticed had conditions attached to it and was off limits. The Packers' 2028 first-round pick also was off limits, and sources involved in the deal acknowledged there were conditions that, until now, had not surfaced.
In the unlikely event that Green Bay did decide it wanted part ways with Parsons and send him to Philadelphia, there would have to be enough compensation involved to make up for the Packers' loss of their 2028 first-round pick as well. Nobody expects that to happen, but one source spelled out how it could, explaining that the Eagles would have to surrender significant draft capital in the highly unlikely scenario of a Parsons trade.
Parsons, 26, has 6.5 sacks in eight games this season and has energized a Packers team that enters Sunday ranked fifth in the NFL in total defense.
Sources told ESPN earlier this year that the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles made a strong push to acquire Parsons, but the Cowboys had no interest in trading the four-time Pro Bowler within their own division -- especially to one of their biggest rivals.
After months of failed negotiations on a long-term contract, the Cowboys ultimately traded Parsons to the Packers, who then signed him to a record-breaking four-year, $188 million deal that included $120 million fully guaranteed at signing and $136 million in total guarantees.
A trade to the Eagles also would have been a homecoming of sorts for Parsons, who was born and grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and was a college superstar at Penn State.
And now, as the Packers (5-2-1) and Eagles (6-2) prepare to play Monday night, Parsons will line up against the team that he has been blocked from going to until after the 2026 season -- should Green Bay ever decide it wants to part ways with him.
