Like Mike? Cowboys rookie Micah Parsons channels Michael Jordan to fight through rookie wall.
FRISCO, Texas — Micah Parsons’ thoughts had begun to consume him.
The Dallas Cowboys linebacker “found myself not being me,” he said. He was frustrated with his performance against the Patriots, obsessing over the plays he could have made but didn’t.
Was this a rookie wall, he wondered? Parsons conferred with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who told Parsons that even in coaching he had hit a wall his initial year.
Quinn’s advice: Grow, understand the big picture and take care of your body.
But was Parsons’ body really the problem? It felt more like his mind.
“A mental slump,” Parsons said Thursday. “I was telling coach: ‘Man, thank God for this bye week.’ ”
At first listen, the remark sounds unlike the Parsons featured on “Hard Knocks” as he begged coaches for more snaps … in preseason games. This was the Parsons who protested limited snap counts even when switching from linebacker to edge rusher on mere days’ notice in Week 2; the Parsons whom veteran teammates had to remind it wasn’t possible to make every play. Now the defensive rookie of the year favorite wanted a bye week? This wasn’t about Parsons playing more video games or resting or deprioritizing football. Rather, the 22-year-old viewed the bye week as a chance to self-scout.
“I felt like I was going into a slump early, so I had to fight my way out of it,” Parsons said. “It’s not so much the pressure to do well, but obviously want to do more. If you go out there and you play OK, some people will be OK with that. ‘I had an OK game and we won.’ But I don’t think Michael Jordan would ever be OK with dropping 15 points and we won.”
Greatness is the goal.
Parsons has started all six games since the Cowboys drafted him 12th overall this past spring. He’s collected 31 tackles, 10 quarterback hits, 2.5 sacks and two pass deflections while playing at least 93% of snaps during the Cowboys’ last three games.
Parsons has helped the Cowboys run defense improve from 31st in 2020 (158.8 yards per game allowed) to fifth (86.2). His lateral quickness and motor have threatened opponents, the versatile packages he shifts between keeping offenses on their toes. Parsons has demonstrated reliability as a defender who can fit run holes, match up on passing-game targets or blitz on third downs. Against the Patriots, the Cowboys shifted Parsons from his initial assignment as an outside linebacker to a behind-the-ball player after New England burned Dallas for a 21-yard run on its first snap and a 4-yard rushing touchdown two players later. Parsons helped disrupt that cycle but wasn’t satisfied.
“He just wants to impact the game so much but you can’t force that sometimes,” Quinn said. “Not being able to impact the same, you can sense frustration (that he didn’t have) a big hit or sack or something that could change the game. He has the speed to do that, the quickness. So when you don’t, it can be a little, ‘Ugh. I’m accustomed to doing that and I didn’t.’ ”
“Ugh” summed up Parsons’ mentality well. He compared his feeling to a basketball player who dropped 12 points in the first quarter then didn't score in the remaining three. The Penn State product doesn’t believe he should have a down, or even average, snap or game.
“I think no one should be OK with just playing OK,” he said. “You should have a higher expectation for yourself and I think the coaches got the same expectations. I think that was weighing in on me.”
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The nature of his disruption matters less than the existence of said disruption. Snatching a loose fumble, intercepting a tipped pass or making a big hit suffices. But contentment is not an option.
“Always try to play full speed,” Parsons said. “You never know: That next play might be your play. … Anything that can be a game-changing play to help the team, you got to find a way to do it.
“When you are young, sometimes it can weigh in when a lot of people is looking up to you to do everything right. It’s something I had to fix personally.”
Parsons spent part of the bye week in New York, visiting friends as well as pop-up shops to upgrade a wardrobe that teammates told him didn’t fit the swag of the player walking into stadiums wearing it. But he also considered details about his body maintenance, weekday schedule and film review to ensure the remaining games of the Cowboys season unfold smoothly.
Parsons cut down on laundry-hamper basketball games in the locker room this week in favor of hot-tub sessions to soothe his muscles. He no longer walked through the doors of "The Star" 20-25 minutes before the 7:30 a.m. team meeting, instead arriving between 5:50-6 a.m. to begin attacking his day. Parsons discussed the threat the Vikings will pose, from talented Pro Bowl receivers in Adam Thielen (393 yards, five touchdowns) and Justin Jefferson (542 yards, three touchdowns) to two-time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook. Cook has rushed for 366 yards on 4.6 yards per carry, gashing the Panthers for 140 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings’ 34-28 overtime victory just before last week’s bye.
“Not a lot of people built like him,” Parsons said of Cook. “I think it’s hard to take a player completely out of the game, but we’ve got to try our best to slow him down and all rally to the ball, all 11 hats to the ball.
“And make sure there’s no gap. You can’t let him breathe. Give him one inch and he’s going to take it, so we all got to play 100% every snap and try to slow him down out there.”
After a week resetting his body, mind and regiment, Parsons has goals for the remainder of the Cowboys’ season. Does he consider how long a pro season is, with 11 more games on the Cowboys’ docket?
“Fourteen more,” Parsons corrected a reporter Thursday, anticipating a postseason schedule running through the Super Bowl. “Fourteen, 15.
“One game at a time, but obviously it’s in the back of everybody’s mind. We can accomplish great things.”
Follow Paste BN Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein