The Dallas Cowboys had future All-Pro Micah Parsons fall into their lap in the 2021 NFL Draft. No one questioned Parsons's ability as a defender, or as one of the top players in the class, but as luck would have it he would fall to the Cowboys at 12 overall.
Fast-forward three seasons, and Parsons has developed into one of the best overall players in the NFL. A major part in that development was the usage that former Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn did with Parsons, where he moved him from splitting time at various positions to focusing on his work as an EDGE defender.
That move resulted in Parsons averaging a PFF grade of 91.4 as a defender and getting to the quarterback for 40.5 sacks in his career. Those numbers are obviously impressive which makes what the Cowboys defender said at a press conference yesterday so puzzling.
Micah Parsons has been getting more work at linebacker early in training camp. He said the opponent will determine how much LB he plays during the season.
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) July 26, 2024
He’s back at his college weight of 240 after being 250 last year.
“I want to do more. … I’m gonna be all over. At the end… pic.twitter.com/HnuaP4ymwU
Using PFF for more than just their grades, we can see that out of 863 snaps last year, only 106 of them came from the linebacker position. Over his whole career, he has only played 28.7% of snaps at linebacker, with the majority of them coming in his rookie year.
Now, with Parsons trimming down to 240 pounds, the move back to him being a utility player has to be seen as puzzling. Dan Quinn is now in Washington as their head coach, and new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer is installing his own system as it pertains to Parsons.
Time will tell how effective he can be with a workload spreading him all over the field. For now, it has to be seen as a questionable move at the start of Zimmer’s tenure.
