The Dallas Cowboys made a monster move right before Week 1 when they traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks.

There was obviously a bunch of backlash on the trade, but Jerry Jones and the team did save a lot of money by making the deal and not paying Parsons.

They now have the money to keep some other players, and one of those guys is Tyler Smith as he signed a four-year, $96 million deal with $81 million of that being guaranteed. That contract makes him the highest paid guard in the NFL, and gives the Cowboys a foundational piece for this year as well as the future.

Smith was not a big-time prospect coming out of high school, as he was a three-star recruit in the class of 2019 who originally signed with Abilene Christian. However, he changed his mind and ended up choosing Tulsa over schools such as Houston, Navy and New Mexico.

He quickly became a star in college, as he was named first-team All-AAC in 2020 and second-team All-AAC in 2021. After his junior campaign, he announced he was leaving and was taken by the Cowboys with the No. 24 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Once again, it didn’t take long as he has quickly emerged as one of the best guards in the entire NFL. He has made it to the Pro-Bowl twice to start his career, and was named second-team All-Pro in 2023.

With the trade of Parsons, this allowed the Cowboys to resign other guys, and Smith is just the latest. Just two weeks ago, Dallas announced that cornerback Daron Bland was resigning a four-year, $92 million deal with 50 of that being guaranteed.

Despite it taking longer than it should in a lot of cases, the Cowboys have done a very good job of eventually resigning their drafted players. Players like Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb are two other players that the team waited until basically the season started, but they got big contracts

Trading Parsons was a move that in the short term people didn’t agree with. However, the Cowboys have done a nice job recently of securing their next group of players for the long-term, while also adding a couple extra first round picks for the future.