If Glazer’s trade value is to be believed, it will take a lot to acquire Crosby. Should the Cowboys do it? And how would it complete Parsons deal?

It appears that star edge rusher Maxx Crosby is going to be the central focus of the NFL trade market this spring. With the start of the new league year just about a month away, the Las Vegas Raiders‘ premier player seems to be on his way out. During last season’s trade deadline, Crosby let it be known he wanted to remain with the team that drafted him, but the club’s commitment to losing for draft pick status rubbed him the wrong way.

The Raiders sat Crosby the final two games of the season as they locked up the No. 1 overall selection, and it’s widely believed that will be used on QB Fernando Mendoza as the franchise’s new cornerstone. Crosby has since demanded a trade, and it appears that the Raiders’ hand may be forced.

NFL insider Jay Glazer recently added a ton of fuel to the fire during Super Bowl LX week, and speculating as to what kind of haul the rebuilding Raiders would get. Glazer believes it will be a bigger return than what the Cowboys got for Micah Parsons.

Parsons was traded for two first-round picks as well as DT Kenny Clark. If the Raiders were to get more than that, for a player who isn’t widely considered a better player, eyebrows would be raised.

There are a few reasons to believe this might be the case, though. For one, many believe the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones undercut themselves by not making Parsons available during the free agency process. They likely limited the number of suitors they could’ve had enter a bidding war as teams had already spent their available cap space five months before Parsons was available.

Second, Glazer mentioned that 20 different teams reached out to him when word surfaced that Crosby wanted out of Las Vegas. That indicates the trade market will be flush with suitors, and that will only increase the chances the Raiders have of exacting the utmost in compensation.

Also, Crosby is already under long-term contract, signed through the 2029 season. That means there doesn’t have to be a ballooning initial payment for acquiring the talent. The Packers had to reward Parsons with the largest non-QB contract in league history, averaging $47 million. An acquiring team could still give Crosby money up front, but he doesn’t have the leverage Parsons did, who was entering the final season of his rookie deal.

Crosby is set to earn $112.9 million over the next four seasons, an average of $28.2 million, almost $20 million less than Parsons will make across the same number of seasons.

While he’s older than Parsons was, turning 29 before the next season, he’s still considered to be well within his prime.

So if the starting ask is the Parsons’ trade haul, do the Cowboys have the ability, or desire to enter the conversation?

And if they did complete the deal, what would the overall ledger look like, in swapping from Parsons to Crosby?

One recent idea that I recently floated was the idea that Dallas may be willing to trade away DT Osa Odighizuwa. Odihizuwa isn’t a Pro Bowl player, but he’s a solid building block who has been on the precipice of blowing up for a while. He’s one of the best pressure players in the league, consistently, he just hasn’t been able to translate them into high sack totals. A rebuilding team would certainly love to get their hands on the three-tech, and the Cowboys have acquired two top DTs in the last year, after signing Odighizuwa to an extension last spring.

If the Cowboys were to package the No. 20 pick, one of the two picks they acquired from Green Bay in the Parsons deal, plus their 2027 first rounder, along with Odighizuwa, that may whet the Raiders’ appetite.

If it came to fruition, that would put a cap on the Cowboys’ Parsons trade. The total exchange would look something like this:

Cowboys Trade Away

Edge Micah Parsons2026 2nd-round pick2027 1st-round pickDT Osa OdighizuwaDT Mazi Smith

Cowboys Acquire

Edge Maxx CrosbyDT Quinnen WilliamsDT Kenny Clark

In this scenario, the Cowboys swapped out a perennial All-Pro edge rusher and a good starting DT in exchange for a perenneial Pro Bowl edge and a perennial Pro Bowl DT, plus a very good starting DT. But the exchange cost them both a first and a second-round pick.

Even if one considers the downgrade from Parsons to Crosby minimal, what value would one put on upgrading from Odighizuwa to Williams? Is the difference there a second rounder? A first? And whatever is left over would be the compensation sent out to acquire Clark.

This is a fictitious scenario including Odighizuwa, whom the Cowboys have given no signs they’d be willing to give up, but his value should generally be seen as around a third-round pick.

These are the things the Cowboys front office should be considering, even if they end up not getting involved for the assumed asking price.