Packers vs. Cowboys live updates: How to watch, inactives, news and latest as Micah Parsons returns to Dallas

The NFL season continues tonight with one of the storylines of the preseason: Micah Parsons vs. the Dallas Cowboys. And now it’s the Green Bay Packers (Parsons’ new team) vs. the Cowboys.
How will Parsons be received in his return to Dallas? Who will get the big “Sunday Night Football” win?
Follow along with our coverage from our NFL experts at The Athletic.
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The Cowboys are clearly on a mission to squash the narrative that Jerry Jones is stingy or drags his feet when it comes to paying his stars. Ever since shipping Micah Parsons to Green Bay, Dallas has been on a full-blown spending spree to lock down the rest of its core.
Cornerback DaRon Bland got a $22 million signing bonus. Fullback Hunter Luepke pocketed $1.5 million, and guard Tyler Smith signed a four-year, $96 million deal, which makes him the highest-paid guard in football.
Put those three deals together, and Dallas went from ranking 26th in 2025 cash commitments all the way up to eighth. Jones closed the door on Parsons in Dallas but has opened his wallet for the future.
We’ll see how he feels about that approach on Sunday when his team hosts the Packers.
Josh Jacobs has said multiple times this season that it takes a couple weeks for a team’s running game to get going. The only player facing more stacked boxes than Jacobs through three weeks (eight or more players) was the Ravens’ Derrick Henry, according to TruMedia. Jacobs has faced a stacked box a whopping 62.1 percent of the time. That, in part, has translated to a meager 3.1 yards per carry average on 58 rushes. In order to free up space for Jacobs to run, Jordan Love has to hit a couple deep shots to make teams take a guy out of the box. The only way to do that is to have time, which he didn’t against the Browns but should against the Cowboys.
Jerry Jones hopped on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” pregame show and was immediately asked about the Micah Parsons trade by former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett. The Cowboys owner/general manager gave a lengthy defense of the trade, comparing it to the 1989 trade of star running back Herschel Walker that kick-started Dallas’ Super Bowl dynasty in the 1990s:
💬 “One player for five or six players. You say we’ve got to go get those players, well we were able to bring one of them with us (Kenny Clark) when we made the trade. Micah is outstanding, and rare. But I believe our best chance at a Super Bowl with Dak Prescott and the makeup of our supporting cast is in the numbers. I’ve always been right, and had the best chance at being right, when the numbers are right.
“I’ve thought that this year is very possible for us to have the kind of success that our fans want us to have. But I know in the future that we will go ahead and make some decisions that we wouldn’t have made had we not made the trade. When we made the Herschel Walker trade, the biggest value was that it caused us to do things we would have never done.”
Jones also compared the feeling of seeing Parsons play tonight to the feeling of seeing Walker or Emmitt Smith play against the Cowboys after they left. He admitted that seeing Parsons in Packers colors is “a little bit of a problem tonight” but says he expects the Cowboys to be “very competitive” and “rise to the occasion.”
The Cowboys rank near the bottom of the league in sack percentage and pressure percentage — I wonder why — but they’ll face a battered and bruised Packers offensive line tonight that struggled mightily to block for Jordan Love last Sunday in Cleveland.
Right tackle Zach Tom won’t face the Cowboys after re-injuring his torn oblique on his first snap last week and left guard Aaron Banks is inactive because of a groin injury suffered against the Browns. Backup right tackle Anthony Belton, the second-round rookie, also won’t play after suffering a knee injury in Wednesday’s practice. That means 2024 first-round pick Jordan Morgan likely starts at left guard and veteran Darian Kinnard, acquired from the Eagles this summer, gets his first start with the Packers at right tackle.
The veteran edge rusher is expected to make his Cowboys debut tonight, playing about 15-20 snaps. Clowney, who started 14 games for the Carolina Panthers last year, signed with Dallas two weeks ago. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer was asked this week how much he thinks they can get out of the former No. 1 overall pick against the Packers.
💬 “I hope a lot,” he said. “He’s had a good week of practice. I know he’s anxious and excited. He’ll just be part of the puzzle, though. He doesn’t have to do anything super human, just go out there and play the defense. He’s very, very excited. We’ll see how it holds up and I’m excited for him. … We’ll be smart with him. It’s a long season and we’re gonna need him for the whole season.”
I still view the Packers as a legitimate Super Bowl contender despite a really bad loss to the Browns, but this week will show their resolve. How do they respond to adversity? How do they balance the added spotlight with the Micah Parsons storyline? On paper, the Packers are the superior team and should beat the Cowboys. Off the field, this is an opportunity for the locker room to grow together. The Cowboys need to prove they’re capable of beating a good team. They had an admirable showing in a Week 1 loss to the Eagles, but they can’t stack too many moral victories and hope to cash them in for a playoff spot.
Dallas has elevated WR Jalen Cropper from the practice squad for this game. He could see some opportunities alongside Jalen Tolbert, KaVontae Turpin and Ryan Flournoy, but the biggest impact has to come from George Pickens. The Cowboys believe he’s another No. 1 wide receiver. He’ll get a chance to show that tonight.
Pickens, playing in the final year of his rookie contract, was asked this week if this is an opportunity to show his value. “I wouldn’t really say value,” he said. “This is a team game. I just want the whole team to win.” Pickens said he’s expecting more double teams, but he will also be running a larger route tree with Lamb out.
Micah Parsons insisted this week that it’s just any other game and that nobody will be thinking about the trade once the ball is kicked. I beg to differ. He’ll want to prove the Cowboys even more wrong for trading him than they already seem and the Packers even more right for giving up one of their best players and two first-round picks to acquire him.
Former Packers and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week that the Cowboys will double-team Parsons as soon as he gets off the bus. Even if Parsons doesn’t wreck the game directly, that attention will provide more one-on-ones for the likes of Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness and Devonte Wyatt, all of whom are off to strong starts this season.
There’s no bigger storyline in the NFL this week that Micah Parsons returning to the team that drafted him in 2021 and shockingly traded him a month ago.
How does Parsons perform in his first game back at AT&T Stadium? My guess is he’ll do very well against an offensive line that is down two starters (center Cooper Beebe and RG Tyler Booker) because of injuries. Look for Parsons to get a lot of attention from running backs and tight ends. The Cowboys can’t allow him many one-on-one matchups.
The Packers would be favored in this game even if Parsons was still in Dallas. Green Bay is 5-0 vs. the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium and 6-0 at AT&T Stadium, including the Super Bowl. The Packers are 10-1 in their last 11 vs. Dallas. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes they have a way to limit Parsons’ production. Since the trade, Jones has often pointed out how the team struggled to stop the run when it mattered most with Parsons on the team. Look for Dallas to try to limit some of his effectiveness by running at him.
💬 “While he does make great plays, there is also a way to approach playing against Micah,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “As we know, we didn’t exactly win the Super Bowl those years” with him.