It is a topic that nobody wants to talk about, but we have to ask ourselves the question: Will the Dallas Cowboys pass rush be good enough without Micah Parsons?
The Matt Eberflus defense was already going to have their hands full if Parsons ended up playing, but now without him, they are already suffering enough on the back end.
Now he has to deal with another major concern. Do they have enough to replace the loss of sack production?
On paper, the Dallas defensive line still has four former first-round picks: Dante Fowler, Kenny Clark, Solomon Thomas and Mazi Smith.
Three second-round selections in Sam Williams, Marshawn Kneeland and Donovan Ezeiruaku, and a third-rounder, Osa Odighizuwa, who might be the best of the bunch.
Can It Be Replaced?
Can it be replaced? Probably, Micah would have ended the season with anywhere from 12 to 15 sacks.
Replaced shouldn’t be the issue, it is the extra fluff they were going to get from everyone else.
Fowler has hit double digits before, but the issue is, now teams don’t have to worry about a guy like Parsons, so it puts more pressure on everyone else.
Regardless of the way Micah was acting, when he was on the field for Dallas, it made the job easier for everyone else.
Now, it is going to be all about how Eberflus can create pressure for the guys he still has.
With both Parsons and DeMarcus Lawerence out of the picture, we can only hope Kneeland and Williams can be a solid duo.
Fowler had 10.5 sacks last year with Washington. The Dallas Cowboys are going to need that production from him, who has now become the team’s best pass rusher.
So can the Cowboys be good enough with Micah, I mean, maybe? I think they will be able to replace his sack total with the guys that they have.
Williams is on the very last year of his rookie contract, and with just 32 games played and 8.5 total sacks under his belt, he needs to have a solid year.
At the end of the day, I have no idea how this is going to go. I think the team can replace the pass rush numbers of Micah, but they are not going to get anything extra that these depth guys would have brought with Parsons on the field.
I would be lying if I said I was not worried about this defense, it could get ugly in a hurry. I hope I am wrong, but man, this offseason started off great with trading for George Pickens and ended awful by trading Parsons.
