The New Orleans Saints have to deal with one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers, Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons, this week.
Parsons had 13 sacks as a rookie and has added an extra half sack to his season total the following two years. He’s finished top-three in the Defensive Player of the Year each season as well.
With Taliese Fuaga’s back injury, slowing down Parsons may come down to Landon Young and Trevor Penning.
It’s difficult to say something about Parsons that hasn’t already been said, so Young kept it simple. He says Parsons “has all the attributes as what you want as a pass rusher.”
Young sees film study as the most important aspects as he tries to mitigate Parsons’ impact on the game. Young is looking for how Parsons’ varies his approach on a down by down basis. Knowing what he likes to do will help Young anticipate it and hopefully be prepared.
Parsons clearly has the advantage in the matchup, and Young has to look for any advantage, and those advantages must come from exploiting tendencies. Penning should be doing the same.