A defensive player hasn’t won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award since Pro Football Hall of Famer and Giants legend Lawrence Taylor. Early in the 2023 season, Cowboys two-time First-Team All-Pro Micah Parsons’ and the Dallas defense’s smothering performances in the team’s 2-0 start has Parsons thinking he can be the first since Taylor. 

The Cowboys are only the third team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to score 70 or more points and allow just 10 points or fewer in their first two games of a season after a 40-0 win against the Giants in Week 1 and a 30-10 victory against the Jets in Week 2. The other two such teams are the 1970 Lions and the 2019 Patriots. The Cowboys’ 10 sacks, tied for the most in the NFL with the Commanders, are the same amount of points they have allowed this season. 

“When I talk about defensive player of the year, I don’t look at the subject of the award,” Parsons said after Sunday’s game. “I look at the subject and say ‘I want to be the best player in the NFL.’ So whatever comes with that, I don’t think just qualify myself as just a defensive player. I think I’m a most valuable player.”

Parsons put together what may have been his most dominant all-around outing in the Cowboys’ defensive deconstruction of the Jets. He finished with two sacks, six quarterback pressures, three tackles for loss, a forced fumble on Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook and a fumble recovery. Parsons also almost came away with a touchdown on this play, but replay review revealed Jets guard Laken Tomlinson was touching him as he recovered the football on the AT&T Stadium turf. 

“I’ve been telling the guys all year: single back, bunch to your side, whether it’s in motion or whatever, how they try to portray and make it look, you know, there’s always a 70% chance that crack toss,” Parsons said. “I instantly read the play and came over the top to see the play. He tried to find a way to…