Tag: Micah Parsons

Cowboys’ Micah Parsons: Return from injury for 49ers showdown ‘still in the air’

From @ToddBrock24f7: Parsons has missed 2 games with a high-ankle sprain. He says it’ll be up to the Cowboys training staff as to whether he returns for Week 8.

The last time they were on the football field, the Cowboys defense gave up nearly 500 yards and 47 points. If you’re measuring solely by point margin, you’d have to go back to 1988 and the final year of the Tom Landry era to find a worse defeat.

While the bye week offered Cowboys coaches a chance to take a step back and figure out what has gone so off the rails this season, it also gave several injured Cowboys defenders an extra week to heal up before the next game versus the San Francisco 49ers.

While DeMarcus Lawrence, Eric Kendricks, DaRon Bland, Marshawn Kneeland, and Caelen Carson were certainly missed versus Detroit, no one’s absence on the defensive side of the ball was felt more acutely than that of Micah Parsons.

But the 25-year-old, who sat out his first game ever because of an injury in Week 5, then missed a second straight game in last Sunday’s 38-point loss, says he’s optimistic he’ll be ready to go by the weekend.

“My hopes are always very high,” Parsons said Monday, regarding his chances to suit up at Levis’s Stadium on Sunday. “I love great challenges. I love being able to beat the odds. I’m going to put this up to my trainers and my coaching staff.”

The two-time first-team All-Pro suffered a high-ankle sprain in a late-September win over the Giants. Since then, the Defensive Player of the Year hopeful has been working hard just to get back in the lineup.

“Micah’s making progress,” head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters Monday, even confirming that Parsons had put in additional work over the bye week.

“Micah was here. He”s doing good; he was in here every day going through rehab. We had, obviously, a big group in here all week last week. Hell, there’s a lot of guys in here working extra. I’m always appreciative and impressed with that… You couldn’t tell it was a bye week, just based off the number of guys I saw in the building throughout the week.”

Monday was scheduled to be a light day for players in terms of actual drills, so the coaching staff may not get a strong indicator of Parsons’s readiness until midweek.

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“It’s still in the air,” Parsons explained. “Obviously, it’s more than just me. I have to clear it with Britt [Brown, Cowboys director of rehabilitation], the coaches, the head coach. They want to make sure — obviously because there’s so many games left — that I come back at the best result. Sometimes, it’s not always the player’s decision. It’s the people with the higher pay grade.”

Parsons admitted to media members that he wasn’t really close to playing against the Lions in Week 6, though he’s been taking it day-by-day since.

“The thing with my injury is that it’s determined person-to-person,” Parsons said.

“It’s more of just getting the sense of how I explode back. Just acceleration and things like that. That’s the biggest thing for me.”

It will also be an awfully big thing for Dallas as they face a longtime NFC nemesis and begin a brutal five-game stretch that could go a long way in deciding the season before Thanksgiving.

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Where are Cowboys leaders that will save the 2024 season? Do they exist?

The Dallas Cowboys are at a crossroads. Sitting with a record of 3-3, the idea the season is already a lost cause shouldn’t be realistic. Yet based on the club’s performances in their three home games to date, there’s a ton of ingredients missing …

The Dallas Cowboys are at a crossroads. Sitting with a record of 3-3, the idea the season is already a lost cause shouldn’t be realistic. Yet based on the club’s performances in their three home games to date, there’s a ton of ingredients missing from a team that has the requisite star power to be championship contenders.

Despite never dipping into free agency in a realistic way, the Cowboys have assembled some of the best talent in the NFL. The roster might be top heavy, but that top is certainly on par with what other teams can boast. Dallas has a myriad of All-Pro and Pro Bowl players, all deserving of their accolades, yet they’re being blown out on a regular basis. Why? The question might come down to leadership.

Teams with lame duck coaches, like the Cowboys have in Mike McCarthy, are not destined for doom. The Cowboys themselves thrived under a lame-duck Jason Garrett in 2014, tying for the NFL’s best record that season. They also floundered the next time they entered the fray with a coach at the crossroads, in 2019 again with Garrett. And now with McCarthy and his entire staff on the final year’s of their deals, the situation has arisen yet again.

And thus far, it does not look like the team has the necessary leadership in the locker room to overcome their current difficulties.

NFL seasons are funny things. History is littered with both underachievers and overachievers, and the common denominator is often whether or not the team is putting in the work necessary to maximize the talents of all 70 players on the roster and practice squad. Is the work being done in between games enough to elicit top performances on Sundays?

So far the answer has been a resounding no when it comes to the 3-3 Cowboys.

There’s plenty of blame to go around.

It starts at the top of the organization, where Jerry Jones’ all-in decree early in the offseason certainly soured his roster, who were looking for their organization to show confidence by investing in filling weaknesses with proven NFL talent.

It continues to the coaching staff, who Jones gambled would go above and beyond in order to convince him they deserved to stay in what he considers the coup de grace of NFL franchises. Instead, they returned with lackluster offensive and defensive schemes and a failure to inspire top performances from the roster.

And it ends with said roster. A team watched the organization spend the entire summer allowing contract disputes with their top three stars, not give a vote of confidence to the coaching staff, and then internalized that lack of belief and are giving out some of their worst on-field performances in some time.

Dak Prescott’s completion percentage is six points lower than 2023 and has thrown for the lowest amount of TDs through six games since his rookie season. The passing offense is in disarray and the team hasn’t scored over 20 points in three weeks.

Zack Martin is a shell of himself after admitting to contemplating retirement last season, for the first time ever he’s not among the best linemen in the league and he’s unable to lead a young offensive line to any semblance of continuity.

Ezekiel Elliott was brought back to be a locker room leader despite diminshing rushing performances each of the last four years, but that doesn’t seem to have had any tangible impact.

CeeDee Lamb couldn’t lead the young wideouts over the offseason because Jones refused to pay him market value until mid-August, and he’s certainly not played the role of a leader with his in-season pouting, bad body language and inconsistent route-running.

On defense, Micah Parsons chose to make his contract a thing, sitting out the spring despite having two years left, and is suffering the worst of his four-year career seasons thus far.

Linebacker Eric Kendricks was brought in to teach Mike Zimmer’s defense and seems to have had a positive impact on the youth in that group, but as has been said many times on these pages, linebackers don’t matter unless the defensive line is a strength. The Cowboys interior DL is abhorrent.

In the secondary, Zimmer’s difficult-to-learn scheme has led to down years from virtually everyone, with veterans Trevon Diggs and Malik Hooker unable to inspire confidence as they struggle in their own rights.

It’s all led to a lackluster season where it’s difficult to even identify a top 30 ranking at this point.

Where are the leaders of this Dallas Cowboys’ season and will they step up and get things in order over the bye week?

Is Micah Parsons playing today? The latest on the Cowboys edge rusher

Here’s the latest status for the Cowboys’ Micah Parsons for Week X vs. the Detroit Lions.

The Cowboys had to travel to Pittsburgh in Week 5 to take on mobile QB Justin Fields and the physical Steelers offense. Despite not having star edge rusher Micah Parsons, along with several other defensive linemen, they were able to corral Fields and prevent him from having a big day through the air or on the ground.

The challenge will be much different in Week 6 with the more stationary Jared Goff under center when the Detroit Lions invade AT&T Stadium for the second consecutive year. In last season’s 20-19 Week 17 win, Parsons was able to notch two quarterback hits and log six tackles for Dallas’ defense. But unfortunately, he won’t have the opportunity to impact this week’s game.

Read: How to Watch Cowboys-Lions alog with streaming options

Parsons was ruled out for a second consecutive contest as he is still dealing with a high-ankle sprain that knocked him out of the team’s Week 4 win over the New York Giants.

Parsons did not practice all week, and with Dallas having theie bye in Week 7, he will now have two additional weeks before the Cowboys next game. That contest will be another chance to try and solve the Kyle Shanahan offense when Dallas takes on the San Francisco 49ers.

Two key questions heading into Lions vs Cowboys

Two key questions heading into Lions vs Cowboys in Week 6

With a trifecta of impact edge rushers out, what will the Cowboys pass rush look like?

Micah Parsons (high ankle sprain), DeMarcus Lawrence (Lisfranc), and 2nd-round rookie Marshawn Kneeland (meniscus) are all out.

Replacing them will include:

  • Chauncey Golston, a 4th-year player with five career sacks, who picked up a half sack last game while playing 90% of defensive snaps.
  • Tyrus Wheat, a 2nd-year player with 0.5 career sacks, who got a big jump in playing time last game with 60% of snaps.
  • Carl Lawson, a 7th-year player with 27.5 career sacks, who picked up a half sack last game while playing played 52% of snaps.

If Goff has a clean pocket, he can be deadly as evidenced by last Monday night when he went 18/18 for 292 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT.

Can the Cowboys generate a pass rush without their top edge players? If the Cowboys decide to send more blitzes, it will be interesting to watch how well the Lions pass protection handles it. In the Lions favor is the fact that their starting offensive line will be intact with the return of Frank Ragnow from a left pec strain.

How productive is the Lions edge rush opposite Aidan Hutchinson?

The Lions edge position opposite Hutchinson was a big question mark coming into the year and has become even bigger with the season-ending losses of Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes. How this position resolves itself may be the key determinant in the final destination of this team.

Levi Onwuzurike, Josh Paschal, and James Houston received increased opportunities to fill that role last game. Which of these players can step up their game to become a consistent edge rusher?

All three have overcome eye-opening medical histories:

  • Onwuzurike has made an extraordinary, almost unprecedented recovery from L5-S1 spinal fusion surgery in October 2022.
  • Houston is coming back from a severe right ankle injury (suspected high ankle sprain) with a fibula fracture that wiped out 19 weeks of his 2023 season.
  • Paschal has one of the more unique histories having recovered from a life-threatening melanoma in his right foot.

If the edge players can’t generate pressure, we may see more action from the LB position. The starters are Alex Anzalone and Jack Campbell, while Malcolm Rodriguez, Ben Niemann, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, and Trevor Nowaske have been getting significant snaps as well.

Rodriguez picked up a sack last week blitzing from the edge. Nowaske saw a lot of pass-rushing opportunities in limited time last game, and we may see much more of that vs the Cowboys.

WATCH: Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs says Jayden Daniels will have a big game vs. Ravens

Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons believe Jayden Daniels will have a big game against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6

The Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders have rarely been good at the same time, but both teams have winning records and, more importantly, transcending stars at the quarterback position.

Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson are both Heisman Trophy winners, and many experts believe the 2024 No. 2 overall pick is a more refined version of the Ravens MVP. The two quarterbacks will meet for the first time in Week 6, and two Dallas Cowboys stars believe Daniels will have a massive game on a big stage.

While appearing on The Edge With Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs said he believes Daniels will perform well against the Baltimore defense.

According to NFL.com, Daniels is the first player in league history to pass for at least 1,000 yards and rush for at least 250 in his first five career games. The Heisman Trophy winner reached those marks in the Commanders’ 34-13 win against the Browns. The only other players in history with 1,000 yards passing and 200 yards rushing in their first five games were Kyler Murray (2019 Offensive Rookie of the Year) and Robert Griffin III (2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year).

Washington has averaged 3.37 points per possession in 2024. Since 2000, the only teams to average more points per possession in their first five games of the season were the 2000 Rams and the 2013 Broncos. Both teams had the NFL MVP that season (Marshall Faulk for the Rams and Peyton Manning for the Broncos).

The reigning MVP has been outstanding for the Ravens, and Jackson is coming off a game in which he had 348 passing yards, four passing touchdowns (against zero interceptions), and 55 yards rushing.

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Cowboys on wrong end of historic career start Week 5 vs Steelers

With injuries mounting, why not throw a career milestone on to salt the wound.

When the schedules were released in May, fans of quarterback pressure circled two of the Cowboys’ first five games. In Week 1, the matchup between Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons lived up to the billing of two of the three preeminent pass rushers in the NFL with both players notching sacks.

Week 5 was the second iteration as Parsons and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ TJ Watt were set to match wits. Only Parsons was injured in Week 4 and is missing the game. To make matters worse, with Dallas driving near the end of the first quarter to take an early lead, Watt made history.

Watt, who has led the NFL in sacks three times already in his career, notched a half tally in a strip sack of Dak Prescott deep in Pittsburgh’s territory, giving him 100 for his career in just 109 career games.

It’s the fastest a player has made that number since Reggie White did it in 96.

Watt, of course, could have been making these milestones while wearing a Dallas uniform. In 2017, Dallas had Watt sitting there in the first round to be taken out of Wisconsin, but the Cowboys famously thought that because they ran a 40-front, Watt wouldn’t make a good fit as he was used to playing standing up.

Instead the Cowboys selected Taco Charlton out of Michigan, who couldn’t even complete half of his rookie contract without getting released.

Another starting Cowboys DE leaves sideline on cart after injury vs Steelers

Rookie Marshawn Kneeland suffers an injury at one of the three spots the Cowboys can’t afford any more attrition. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys lost two starting edge rushers to injury in Week 4’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. With not much depth behind them, the club went out and poached a practice squad to get more help. Only KJ Henry wasn’t in town long enough to be activated for this week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So without Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, Dallas was left to pressure Justin Fields, with rookie Marshawn Kneeland, and veterans Chauncey Golston, Carl Lawson and second-year man Tyrus Wheat.

Make that Golstron, Lawson and Wheat, as Marshawn Kneeland had to leave the game on the Steelers’ first drive with a leg injury. Kneeland was carted to the locker room after limping off the field.

A second-round rookie from Western Michigan, Kneeland has flashed on = occasion in the young season, though he has yet to register a sack on the young season.

The game is tied at 3 early as both teams scored field goals on their opening drives. Dallas had to punt on their next possession, giving the ball back to the Steelers at their own 26.

Parsons, Carson headline inactives in Cowboys-Steelers Week 5 tilt, rookie WR to debut

Dallas is doing three defensive starters now, with both edge rushers and now a corner missing from the action.

The Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers are careening towards their 31st matchup in franchise history. The last official pre-game acts? Naming of the inactives. Teams have 53-man rosters and can elevate two players from the practice squad each week. However they are only allowed to dress a certain amount and allow them onto the field in a game.

That number is 47, but it has caveats. If a team is dressing at least nine offensive linemen, they can dress 48 players. A team can also dress an emergency third quarterback, who can play in case the top two signal callers are injured. That leaves six players to be named inactive.

How to Watch, Stream Listen to Cowboys-Steelers on SNF

For Dallas, the headline is Micah Parsons, dealing with a high ankle sprain. Parsons didn’t practice all week and it was clear early he was going to miss the game. Not mentioned are DE DeMarcus Lawrence and WR Brandin Cooks, who were moved to IR earlier in the week.

 

RB Deuce Vaughn
LB Micah Parsons
CB Caelen Carson
DE KJ Henry
OT Matt Waletzko
TE John Stephens Jr.
Trey Lance (emergency QB)

Notable is that Dallas is activating WR Ryan Flournoy and also that starting corner Caelen Carson is going to miss his second consecutive contest. He’s been starting opposite Trevon Diggs since Daron Bland has spent the first third of the season on IR after foot surgery.

As for the Steelers, they will also be without some key pieces, with edge LB Alex Highsmith out along with RBs Jaylen Warren and Cardarrelle Patterson.

Parsons ruled out in Cowboys vs Steelers final injury report; Diggs, Cooks, LB updates

Several key components from both clubs are going to miss the game and there are a handful of question marks too. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Here’s the good news. They got Ezekiel Elliott and Ryan Flournoy some fluids. The veteran running back and rookie WR set to make his debut in Week 5 vs the Pittsburgh Steelers are no longer a concern after dehydrating on Thursday.

Here’s the bad news. As expected, Micah Parsons and Brandin Cooks have officially been ruled out for the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys. Parsons’ high-ankle sprain was a virtual certainty, as was Cooks knee after an infection developed. There’s no word when either will return but it could be a minute for both. Also, CB Trevon Diggs left practice on Thursday and did not participate on Friday, but head coach Mike McCarthy says that he’s set to play.

Meanwhile, the Steelers will also be without a starting pass rusher and key offensive components.

In the final injury report for the week, Pittsburgh ruled out LB Alex Highsmith, RB Cordarrelle Patterson and RB Jaylen Warren. While they’ll still have T.J. Watt to terrorize the young Dallas offensive line, the Steelers struggling run game is going to be without their No. 2 and No. 3 running backs behind the currently plodding Najee Harris.

Also out for Pittsburgh is TE MyCole Pruitt. Here’s the designations from both teams.

Dallas Cowboys

LB Micah Parsons, Ankle | OUT
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Did Not Participate

WR Brandin Cooks, Knee | OUT
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: DNP

CB Caelen Carson, Shoulder | QUESTIONABLE
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Limited Participant

Safety Markquese Bell, Ankle | NO DESIGNATION
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Full Participant

CB Trevon Diggs, Ankle | QUESTIONABLE
Thursday: Limited, Friday: DNP

OT Tyler Guyton, Shoulder | NO DESIGNATION
Thursday, Friday: Full

RB Rico Dowdle, Wrist | NO DESIGNATION
Thursday, Friday: Full

RB Ezekiel Elliott, Dehydration | NO DESIGNATION
Thursday: Limited, Friday: Full

WR Ryan Flournoy, Dehydration | NO DESIGNATION
Thursday: Limited, Friday: Full

LB Marist Liufau, Quad | QUESTIONABLE
Friday: Limited

Wednesday NIR Rest Days: Malik Hooker, Eric Kendricks Jourdan Lewis, Zack Martin

Pittsburgh Steelers

QB Russell Wilson, Calf | QUESTIONABLE
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: LP

RB Jaylen Warren, Knee | OUT
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: DNP

LB Jeremiah Moon, Ankle | QUESTIONABLE
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: FP

LB Nick Herbig, Ankle | NO DESIGNATION
Wednesday: DNP | Thursday: Limited | Friday: Full

G Isaac Seumalo, Pectoral | NO DESIGNATION
Wednesday, Thursday: FP | Friday: Full

TE MyCole Pruitt, Knee | OUT
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: DNP

RB Cordarrelle Patterson, Ankle | OUT
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: DNP

DL Keeanu Benton, Ankle | NO DESIGNATION
Wednesday: LP | Thursday, Friday: Full

DT Larry Ogunjobi, Groin | QUESTIONABLE
Thursday, Friday: Limited

Steelers the perfect opponent for Cowboys to try changes against

The Steelers’ struggles on offense should provide the Cowboys a chance to experiment. | From @ReidDHanson

The Dallas Cowboys’ defense is going to look significantly different when they take the field in Pittsburgh on Sunday night. For the first time since 2020, Dallas will play without Micah Parsons. Parsons, a perennial defensive MVP candidate, will presumably be out this week with a high ankle sprain suffered against New York. Joining Parsons on the sideline will be fellow pass rusher DeMarcus Lawrence. Lawrence also fell in Week 4 and could miss up eight weeks with a Lisfranc injury.

With the two top pass rushers out, it would be an understatement to say this defense is going to look fairly abnormal in Week 5. Dallas will likely tinker with substitution packages, blitzes, stunts, and personnel groups in order to compensate for the loses. Just to even remotely replace the missing production, things may need to get extremely creative for Mike Zimmer and company.

And Week 5 is the perfect week to do it.

The Steelers, Dallas’ opponent Sunday night, are still trying to figure things out on offense. They rank 20th in EPA offense this season and have been having significant struggles running the ball. Their rushing EPA ranks 29th in the NFL with a success rate of just 35.5 percent. Even with one of the best rushing quarterbacks in the league in Justin Fields, the Steelers have struggled to move the ball on the ground.

It just so happens run defense has been Dallas’ biggest issue in 2024. Parsons and Lawrence may represent most notably the Cowboys’ pass rush, but they also rank as two of the most capable run defenders. Losing them impacts both phases of the game.

Facing a below average offense that’s struggling to run the ball is just what the doctor ordered at a time like this. Zimmer can experiment with new players, new alignments and blitz packages he may not otherwise feel comfortable with.

With the Lions and the 49ers next up on the schedule, the following two matchups aren’t so inviting. The first-place schedule they face in 2024 certainly isn’t doing them any favors, so all things considered, the injuries fell at a good time for the Cowboys. Now is the time to experiment on defense and try to figure some solutions because things get much harder down the road.

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