When Leighton Vander Esch was placed on IR following a neck injury in Week 5, concern rained down from the heavens. Not only was there concern about Vander Esch’s long-term health, but there was also concern about how the Cowboys would fill his void on the defense.
Dallas was already paper thin at LB and options were limited in free agency. Out of pure necessity, Micah Parsons was expected to see more snaps as an off-ball LB, which would likely impact his role as a pass rusher.
Parsons, a converted LB, knows how to play off-ball well. He played a traditional LB role at Penn State exclusively and was drafted as such by Dallas back in 2021. He started with Dallas off-ball and only when needs forced him to play on the line as rookie, did the Cowboys truly discover what they had in Parsons – a transcendent pass rusher.
Since pass-rushers impact the game exponentially more than off-ball players, the Cowboys rarely moved Parsons back to a traditional LB role. They still moved him around the line in search of matchups, but rarely have they asked him to play truly off-ball.
Micah Parsons is usually with the Cowboys’ defensive linemen, taking pass-rush reps before game. He was not with group today. A sign he could work more at off-ball linebacker in first game without Leighton Vander Esch? pic.twitter.com/BxTwOEn0PE
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) October 16, 2023
The idea of losing him on the defensive line in order to play a role on the second level was enough to frighten anyone.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul only makes sense if Paul is more important. It would be like skipping the mortgage payment in order to afford Netflix. It was an example in misplaced priorities.