PHILADELPHIA — As much as it pains me to say this, the Micah Parsons debacle might spell the end for Jerry Jones as the mastermind behind the decades of dominance of the Dallas Cowboys.

And by dominance, I mean irrelevance.

Parsons is good for three wins per season, and so, after Jerry traded him Thursday to the Packers for two meh first-round picks and a very meh defensive tackle, at this point, it will be astonishing if the Cowboys win even nine of their 17 games. They will likely miss the playoffs. It will be all Jerry’s fault.

Again. As usual.

In the past three years Jones has botched extension negotiations first with franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, then with franchise wideout CeeDee Lamb. He held on to coach Mike McCarthy for two years too long, then found himself unable to hire a viable head coach, principally because nobody wanted to work in his shadow.

In the end, he settled to promote Brian Schottenheimer, who has never been a head coach of anything. Good for Brian Schottenheimer; there’s no blame for him in this discussion.

Now, finally, Jones bumbled negotiations with his first Hall of Fame defensive player since Deion Sanders, who last played for the Cowboys in 1999. In July, as negotiations with Parsons stalled, Jones pointed to Parsons’ injury history and said, incredibly, unforgivably, “Just because we sign him, doesn’t mean we’re going to have him. He was hurt [four] games last year, seriously.”

Making death jokes about 82-year-old folks is a chancy proposition, but this might be the nail in Jerry’s coffin. Yes, he owns the team, but when Eagles and Commanders fans take over the Jerry Dome the next two years because Cowboys fans are giving away their tickets, Jones will finally understand that he has been the problem all along. This will be the humiliation that drives him into hiding. It is the end of a madcap, surreal, disastrous era. There is no coming back from this.

Soon, Jones will finally realize, for the first time since he pushed out Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson, he is one of the least important people in his organization, even though he has always acted as if he’s the only important person in the organization. This has been delightful to witness, from afar, in a train wreck sort of way.

But ask any Cowboys fan: It has been hell to live through for the past 30 years as the team went 5-13 in the postseason and did not reach the NFC championship game in three decades.

Fallout

It’s good news for the Eagles that Parsons was traded from the Cowboys to the Packers for two low-value first-round picks, since the Packers likely will be a playoff team the next two years, as well as defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who’s entering his 10th season.

Clark made the Pro Bowl after the 2023 season, but last season he ranked 62nd among D-tackles who played at least 200 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

Parsons is the only player in NFL history who entered the league at age 22 or younger to collect 12 or more sacks in each of his first four seasons. (Reggie White played his first two seasons in the USFL.)

The bad news for the Eagles is that Parsons now plays for the Packers instead of, say, the Patriots or Chargers. It’s great for the Birds that he no longer lives in the NFC East, so they are not assured two meetings with the most disruptive defender in the NFL. But they’re playing in Green Bay on Nov. 10, and the Packers will be possible playoff foes for the entirety of the four-year, $188 million extension the Packers immediately gave him. He will affect Eagles fate plenty in games that matter most.

Also bad news for the Birds:

It is a fearsome prospect to imagine what Parsons might become now that he no longer is shackled by the amateurism of the NFL’s least-serious franchise. He’s entering his prime. His prime in Green Bay might be Lawrence Taylor.

The last time the Packers landed a defensive talent of this magnitude, they eventually won a Super Bowl.

You remember: 1993.

Reggie White.

Cannot overstate

There’s little question that, with all due respect to Lamb, the Cowboys lost their best player. In May, Lamb was delighted when the Cowboys traded for Steelers rising star wideout George Pickens. In August, disgusted with Jones’ dithering, Lamb tweeted, “Never fails dawg. Just pay the man what you owe him. No need for the extracurricular” with a frowny face icon.

Can’t wait to see CeeDee’s next tweet. Consider his future. Consider Dak’s. Without Micah, CeeDee and Dak might waste the prime of their careers in Big D, and that will be too much for even Jones to absorb.

Jones has had a strangely popular run in Dallas, where they haven’t won the Super Bowl in three decades, despite him spending money like Nero and living life like Caligula. Can’t see him surviving this one.

That’s too bad for me, personally, because he provides the press with conflict, drama, narrative and spectacular sound bites.

But when he’s gone, which will be sooner than later, following Dan Snyder, who was excommunicated, and Jerry Richardson, who was excommunicated and then died, we’ll have to find other sources for derision.

At least we still have Arizona’s Michael Bidwell down in the desert and the Jets’ Woody Johnson up in the swamp.

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