Cowboys All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons possesses new-found, on-field ‘free will’ under new DC Mike Zimmer

FRISCO, Texas — Great players want to be challenged because routine dominance is boring. 

Dallas Cowboys three-time All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons is certainly dominant. He and Pro Football Hall of Famer Reggie White are the only players since sacks have been tracked as individual statistic (since 1982) with at least 13 sacks in each of their first three seasons. In his third season under former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, now the head coach of the Washington Commanders, in 2023, Parsons produced to new heights. 

He paced the entire league in quarterback pressures (103), quarterback pressure rate (21.8%) and pass rush win rate (35.3%) — when a defender beats his block in less than 2.5 seconds. Factoring in that Parsons was double-teamed on 35% of his pass rush plays in 2023, the most in the league among edge players, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. There wasn’t another edge rusher in the NFL who was double-teamed at a rate of 30% or higher last season.

However, he was experiencing a monotony of regularly lining up against other NFL teams’ left tackle and going to battle. That was obviously a successful tactic because of the aforementioned production. What new Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer has done to activate Parsons’ mind on essentially every snap, starting with Dallas’ 33-17 victory at the Cleveland Browns in Week 1, is provide him more leadership and on-field decision-making than he has ever had before. Zimmer is now allowing Parsons to align himself along the called defensive front how he sees fit and select his matchup. 

The result was Parsons registering a sack and an NFL Week 1-best 11 quarterback pressures in Cleveland. He only had three career games with double-digit pressures in his first three seasons. He is one-for-one in racking up that level of consistent intimidation under Zimmer and more mentally engaged than ever before and feeling a need to…

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Author : Garrett Podell

Publish date : 2024-09-12 13:57:59

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