There’s been unending praise for Linebacker Micah Parsons from the moment he hit the field for the Cowboys. Yesterday, kudos from Jerry Jones about his defensive superstar included an unexpected comparison to former Dallas quarterback Tony Romo.
Raving about Parsons to the media during another training camp session, Jones pointed out an interesting and important similarity between Parsons and Romo:
“I thought Romo was probably as pure a competitor, certainly equal to anybody I’ve been around. He’d flip a coin for us right here to see who gets this white line first. He just came looking for gaming and competitiveness, and Tony was competitive in every way, physically and otherwise.”
“Parsons is unique in that he’s competitive in the most challenging physical areas. Think about that just a minute. He’s competitive in the defensive line area. He’s competitive where you are the force and your open field physical area, you are the force.”
While the Cowboys have had some great talents on defense over the last several years, a consistent criticism has been a lack of attitude. Guys like Sean Lee, Byron Jones, and DeMarcus Lawrence certainly make individual impacts but it rarely felt like the rest of the defense was feeding off of them.
Micah brings a tangibly different energy to the field. He is relentless until the whistle blows and until the game clock expires. As he continues to transition from rookie phenom to veteran leader, that mentality will hopefully become all the more infectious to his teammates.
In fact, Parsons’ attitude led to Jones making another comparison.
Parsons has already established himself as one of the baddest men on the NFL planet. A legitimate candidate for Defensive Player of the Year even as a rookie, Micah enters 2022 with as much hype and respect as any defender throughout the league.
Just based on his own comments, Parsons isn’t about to rest on any rookie laurels.
Again, this is what the Cowboys’ defense has needed for a long time. They’ve had great talents and competitive guys, but perhaps neither to the same degree coming from the same person.
Going back to last season, Parsons has now drawn comparisons to Lawrence Taylor, Tony Romo, and Mike Tyson. He’s easily Dallas’ best defensive player since DeMarcus Ware and perhaps even Deion Sanders.
We can only hope that Micah Parsons keeps building on 2021 and earns even higher praise for many seasons to come. His success is the Cowboys’ success, and his brazen competitive spirit makes it all the easier for his teammates to tap in.
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What I really like is he’s not a rah-rah, overly vocal type, either. So far, it seems like he’s hitting the right balance of being willing to say something, without always saying something just to say something.
Romo, Witten, DLaw, Tyron, Zack, and Lee were perhaps too quiet and more “lead by example” types. Dez was always the jabber jaw, cheerleader, get in your face type.
Of the newish guys, Dak, Diggs, Ridgeway, and Kearse seem to be the most vocal. But, none of them seem to be as over-the-top as Dez was.
Oh my God I love this kid and everything he stands for and I was one of those voices who was comparing his impact and mentality to Lawrence Taylor’s and I stand by that claim today. I love and respect LT as the greatest defensive player of all time and I do not take the comparison lightly and this was the only time I ever gave a current player that much praise. I think it’s warranted here cuz we can all see it as clear as day that this is a special player. In fact he should have matched LT by winning the defensive rookie of the year award as well as the NFL DPOY award. If TJ Watt wasn’t JJ Watts little brother and a handsome white boy who played LB for the Steelers, he wouldn’t have received 1 vote. At no point was tj watt considered the best defensive player in the NFL last season and that’s fact. It was Darius Leonard, Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett and then Aaron Donald. Most people didn’t even think tj was the best defensive player on his own team!!! (Cameron Heyward) I’ve disliked the Dallas Cowboys my entire life until last season when I was glued to the screen every time they were on TV just to see #11 and I can’t wait to do it all again this year.