Tag: Micah Parsons

Washington adds major defensive piece in latest 2021 NFL Mock Draft

While they may be out of range for a top QB in the draft, Washington could take Micah Parsons, arguably the best linebacker on the board.

While the recent decision in Washington to make a push for the playoffs and try to win a weak NFC East division is fun for fans, there are some downsides that come along with it. Among the biggest downsides is the fact that Washington will unlikely be in a position to draft a quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft, which complicates things going forward.

There’s a general feeling that Kyle Allen is not the answer, nor is Alex Smith. Free Agency is an option, and as we posited on Wednesday, there is seemingly an increasing chance that Ron Rivera could shift things back towards Dwayne Haskins sometime in the future, depending on his growth. Nonetheless, at the moment it doesn’t seem like a QB will be in the cards for Washington in the draft, so where will they go instead?

According to the most recent mock draft at USA TODAY’s Touchdown Wire, it will be the defense that is the focus once again, with Penn State Micah Parsons being the pick at No. 7.

Parsons is a rangy, hard-tackling and well-covering cleanup man in the Luke Kuechly mold. Ahead of his opt-out from conference play, which stands through the Big Ten returning. Parsons had 109 total tackles, including 5 sacks, last season for the Nittany Lions. A pick to bolster the defense would not at all be surprising from Washington, with their last five first-round draft picks being spent on defensive lineman and a quarterback. So far this year, the defense has been performing close to expectations, and there’s a belief that they can continue to grow into one of the best units in the league in the near future.

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Updated 2021 NFL Draft order after Week 6

In Draft Wire’s updated 2021 Draft order, the Philadelphia Eagles would have a top-10 pick if the season ended today

The Philadelphia Eagles are currently 1-4-1 on the season and the next few weeks will determine if the Birds will compete for another NFC East title or draft status.

Draft Wire recently released their updated 2021 NFL Draft order after Week 6 and as things currently stand, Philadelphia would have a top-10 pick.

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2021 NFL Draft Order

1. New York Jets (0-6)

2. Washington Football Team (1-5)

3. New York Giants (1-5)

4. Atlanta Falcons (1-5)

5. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5)

6. Minnesota Vikings (1-5)

7. Miami Dolphins (via Houston Texans (1-5))

8. Los Angeles Chargers (1-4)

9. Philadelphia Eagles (1-4-1)

10. Cincinnati Bengals (1-4-1)

11. Detroit Lions (2-3)

12. New England Patriots (2-3)

13. Denver Broncos (2-3)

14. Miami Dolphins (3-3)

15. Carolina Panthers (3-3)

16. San Francisco 49ers (3-3)

17. Las Vegas Raiders (3-2)

18. Arizona Cardinals (3-2)

19. Dallas Cowboys (2-3)

20. New Orleans Saints (3-2)

21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2)

22. Cleveland Browns (4-2)

23. Indianapolis Colts (4-2)

24. Buffalo Bills (4-1)

25. Jacksonville Jaguars (via Los Angeles Rams (4-2))

26. Kansas City Chiefs (4-1)

27. Green Bay Packers (4-1)

28. Baltimore Ravens (5-1)

29. Chicago Bears (5-1)

30. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-0)

31. New York Jets (via Seattle Seahawks (5-0))

32. Tennessee Titans (5-0)

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys (2-3)

Philadelphia Eagles (1-4-1)

New York Giants (1-5)

Washington Football Team (1-5)

Philadelphia is currently in second place in the NFC East as some of their top stars start to get healthy. Howie Roseman and company will have decisions to make in the near future and a top-10 pick could be the beginning of a true youth movement with the Eagles roster.

Panthers potential 2021 NFL draft targets: Penn State LB Micah Parsons

Let’s take a look at Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, a 2021 NFL draft prospect who could pair with Shaq Thompson and create one of the more dynamic off-ball duos in the league.

If the Carolina Panthers want to get their defense back to the elite level it was when they went on their Super Bowl run in 2015, they will have to add another elite linebacker who can patrol sideline to sideline like the now-retired Luke Kuechly.

Let’s take a look at Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, a 2021 NFL draft prospect who could pair with Shaq Thompson and create one of the more dynamic off-ball duos in the league.

Profile:
6-foot-3, 245 pounds
Projected 40 yard dash: 4.45 seconds
Parsons is a freak athlete with tremendous versatility. He can play inside and off ball linebacker, as a stand-up edge rusher and even as a base end with his hand in the dirt. Speed, burst and instincts are all strengths of Parsons that he uses to get after the quarterback and stuff run plays on a consistent basis. He’s small for his position, but he doesn’t play like it. Parsons’ 6-foot-3 frame is well-built and very compact, which allows him to turn speed into power when rushing the passer. Parsons uses his speed to reach ball carriers sideline to sideline and has natural instincts to plug up the run game. However, his greatest strength is his ability to blitz.

Highlights:

Parsons vs. Pittsburgh

Parsons vs. Memphis

Parsons 2019 highlights

How he compares:
Parsons has announced the he will sit out the 2020 season and prepare for the 2021 NFL draft. As long as he performs near expected at his pro day and the NFL combine, he will be a lock as a top-15 draft pick. He is a truly unique defender that has all the tools necessary to have his game translate into All-Pro success in the pros. Parsons and Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses are the only LBs in the class that have true sideline-to-sideline range, a trait only elite linebackers in the NFL possess. However, Moses has battled injuries his entire collegiate career, which gives Parsons the edge as LB1 in this upcoming class.

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Players we’ll miss most from the Big 10 and Pac-12: Penn State LB Micah Parsons

Ranking the 10 football players we will miss watching the most from the Big 10 and Pac-12: No. 3 Penn State LB Micah Parsons.

The Big Ten announced its decision Tuesday to postpone fall sports. Minutes after, the Pac-12 made the decision to postpone its season as well.

With two of the Power Five conferences not playing, the entire college football season is now up in the air. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 still have plans to have their conference-only seasons, but there are a number of players, coaches and teams that college football fans will miss watching dearly.

The No. 3 player we will miss watching most this year from the Big Ten and Pac-12 is Penn State junior linebacker Micah Parsons.

Parsons is the ultimate Swiss Army knife on the defensive side of the ball.  He can disrupt the run game (14 TFL in 2019), cover receivers (five passes defended) as well as rush the passer (five sacks).  This all comes on top of Parsons great tackling ability, tallying a total of 191 tackles in just two seasons at Penn State.

Parsons, the Harrisburg, PA native, stands at 6-foot-3, 244 pounds.  As a sophomore last season Parsons earned consensus All-American honors and the Big Ten’s Linebacker of the Year award. He was also a Butkus Award finalist.

Prior to the postponement of the Big Ten and Pac-12, the projected top-10 2020 NFL Draft selection decided to opt out of the 2020 college football season due to COVID-19 concerns.  In this decision, Parsons also announced he would take this next year to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

Giants select LB Micah Parsons in Todd McShay’s 2021 mock draft

The New York Giants select Penn State LB Micah Parsons in Todd McShay’s 2021 NFL mock draft.

The New York Giants are likely to have needs at cornerback, wide receiver, center and along the edge when the 2021 NFL Draft rolls around, but that’s not the direction ESPN’s Todd McShay has them heading in next April.

Despite the wildly uncertain nature of the college football season and how it might impact next year’s draft, McShay rolled ahead with a mock draft anyway and has the Giants selecting Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons at No. 6 overall.

6. New York Giants

Micah Parsons, ILB, Penn State*

Parsons was among the first to opt out of the 2020 season, but he’s a future NFL star, and while he still has some developing to do, I don’t have to see any more game action to tell me that. He has the frame, range, athleticism and cover skills to make a big impact in the middle of a struggling Giants defense. And when he is given the green light as a blitzer, his instincts and speed allow him to get home on the quarterback, a bonus for a Giants team that was in the bottom third of the league in sacks last season (36). He’d be the first linebacker taken by Big Blue in the first round since Carl Banks was selected No. 3 in 1984.

The Giants selecting Parsons in Round 1 would certainly end a long-standing drought, but how likely is that given that the talented linebacker won’t play in 2020?

As talented as Parsons is, and as McShay alludes, there was still a lot of development that needed to take place and game experience that would be necessary to immediately step in at the NFL level.

With Parsons opting out and Penn State unlikely to play this fall anyway, it hurts his value whether that’s fair or not. Parsons will have sat out of football for 16 months by the time the draft rolls around, 19 months by the time training camp rolls around and 20 months by the time the first preseason game is scheduled.

Considering Parsons only has two years (26 games) of experience under his belt as it is, that makes selecting him in the top 10 extremely risky no matter how high his ceiling may be.

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Two more top players in the Big Ten opt out of the 2020 season

After Minnesota wide receiver and future first round pick Rashod Bateman opted out of the 2020 football season earlier this week, two…

After Minnesota wide receiver and future first round pick Rashod Bateman opted out of the 2020 football season earlier this week, two more of the conference’s top players joined him in deciding to sit out the season and prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft.

Those players are Penn State linebacker and future top-10 pick Micah Parsons and Purdue wide receiver and future first-rounder Rondale Moore.

The three followed Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley who was the first big name in college football to opt out and prepare for the draft.

Aside from how health risks impacted their decisions, all three players were key contributors to their teams and were three of the most impactful players in the conference.

Micah Parsons in 2019: 109 tackles, 14 tackles-for-loss, 5 sacks and 4 forced fumbles.

Rondale Moore in 2018 (he was injured most of the 2019 season): 114 receptions, 1258 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Rashod Bateman in 2019: 60 receptions, 1219 yards and 11 touchdowns.

They are now all ranked by TheDraftNetwork as the No. 3 prospect in the draft (Parsons), the No. 17 prospect (Moore) and the No. 27 prospect (Bateman).

The health risks of playing football this season obviously can’t be overlooked, but from a pure football perspective these players not being on the field will have far-reaching effects on the Big Ten season and who is crowned conference champion.

Oh, and these three probably will not be the last.

Penn St. LB Micah Parsons opts out, will skip 2020 to prep for the draft

Expect to see Parsons projected to the Browns in some upcoming mock drafts

Micah Parsons is one of the best LB prospects to come through the college ranks in several years. The Penn State standout officially ended his collegiate career and declared his eligibility for the 2021 NFL Draft on Thursday. Parson is opting out of playing for the Nittany Lions and will instead focus on draft preparation.

The 6-3, 245-pound off-ball backer is widely projected as a top-20 overall talent. He’s been in the top 10 in many preseason mock drafts.

Expect the Cleveland Browns scouting department to pay special attention to Parsons. With a young group that includes Mack Wilson, Sione Takitaki and B.J. Goodson as the top three, a dynamic player like Parsons would instantly vault to the top of the position group and make a big impact right away.

My brief scouting two cents on what I’ve seen from Parsons, including one game in person thus far: he’s got a lot of Lance Briggs to his game. And I think Briggs belongs in the Hall of Fame.

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Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons opts out of 2020 season

The talented linebacker and likely early first-round pick from Penn State opts-out of the 2020 college football season.

In the past few days two potential first-round players for the 2021 NFL Draft announced they were opting out of the season ahead, Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley and Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman.

A third player joined them, and it is a big one: Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons.

Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports had the news late on Tuesday night:

Parsons confirmed it on Thursday with this statement:

Parsons is a very big name in draft circles. Viewed by most evaluators as the clear favorite in this class of off-ball linebackers, Parsons is perhaps a top five selection overall. In the most recent Touchdown Wire mock draft, the Penn State defender came off the board sixth overall to the New York Giants.

When you watch Parsons on film, you see plays like this all of the time:

Mike Renner, the lead draft analyst at Pro Football Focus, recently called Parsons the “best college linebacker prospect since Luke Kuechly.” Renner went on to say of the Penn State product:

Over the past decade, only seven off-ball linebackers have been taken with a top-10 pick in the NFL draft. But barring injury or a surprise return to school, there will be another in 2021 — Penn State’s Micah Parsons. And he isn’t just any top-10 pick — he’s the closest thing to a linebacker prototype since Luke Kuechly coming out of Boston College back in 2012.

Parsons has ideal size, athleticism and production for a linebacker prospect, and he was only a sophomore last season. If he could have declared for the 2020 NFL Draft, the chances are he would have been selected before Isaiah Simmons.

That’s the caliber of prospect we’re talking about: What Penei Sewell is to the offensive tackle position, Parsons looks like for linebackers.

Now what awaits instead of another season in front of the Penn State faithful? The NFL.

Penn State LB Micah Parsons to opt out of 2020 season

The best linebacker prospect in the 2021 NFL Draft class is opting out of the 2020 college football season amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Yet another opt prospect in the 2021 NFL Draft class is opting out of the 2020 college football season.

Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, a potential top-five pick in next year’s draft, is joining the ever-growing list of college football players who won’t be playing this season.

The news was first reported by Eric Edholm of Yahoo! Sports, and was confirmed Thursday by ESPN’s Adam Schefter:

A five-star, in-state recruit, Parsons is the rare off-ball linebacker who could end up warranting a top-five selection in the draft. Listed at 6-3, 245 pounds, Parsons has a rare combination of size, athleticism and physicality, to go along with impressive instincts and intelligence.

Much like we’ve seen top prospects skip bowl games in recent years to preserve their health for the next level, Parsons is now part of a growing trend of talented players who are opting to start their draft preparations early instead of risking their healthy by playing the 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Recent reported CFB opt outs could be significant for Dolphins

Recent reported CFB opt outs could be significant for Dolphins

The NFL isn’t the only realm of football that is seeing talent opt out of the 2020 season. The waves of highly talented college football players to announce their decision to skip the 2020 season have begun as well. The first prominent college prospect to announce he was skipping the year was Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley, who is highly gifted but also probably an inconsequential domino for the Miami Dolphins after such a heavy investment in the cornerback position this offseason. But yesterday saw two more potential first-round players announce that they, too, would be skipping any kind of college season — and both are very much relevant to the Miami Dolphins. 

First, Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman. Bateman plays in an offensive attack that will sound familiar to Dolphins fans — the Gophers like to run down hill at you and gash you in the passing game with a lot of run-pass options. It isn’t dissimilar to how Tua Tagovailoa made so many waves at Alabama and, more importantly, not necessarily too dissimilar to how Miami is expected to run their offense in 2020. If the Dolphins are going to make the most of Tagovailoa’s talents, they’re going to need more depth and top-flight talent in the skill positions around him. After all, that’s exactly what Tagovailoa was accustomed to having at his disposal throughout the course of his career at Alabama with Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Jaylen Waddle and Devonta Smith. Bateman is most similar to Smith — he plays bigger than his size, he wins both at the line of scrimmage and after the catch, shows great hands in traffic and is an expected 1st-round target of NFL teams. If Miami wants to go from good to great in the wide receiver room, Bateman will be a name to watch, even if he’s not someone who you can watch in the college game this fall. 

The second report yesterday came from Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports and it serves as the biggest name to be reported yet: Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons. If the Miami Dolphins are going to be in possession of a top-10 pick and they don’t see a wide receiver that they love available, Parsons is the kind of talent that will likely generate a very strong amount of interest. The Dolphins will have to make a difficult decision with Raekwon McMillan this offseason — but if Miami opted to pass on resigning McMillan with the hopes of landing Parsons in mind, it would be cause for excitement. Parsons is a three-down terror at linebacker who wins as a pass rusher (he was a defensive end in high school), in pass coverage (he’s reported to run in the 4.4s in the 40) and as the quarterback of the defense. 

There will be more declarations to come ahead of any kind of college football season this fall. But in the meantime, there are already two prospects in hand that should move the needle for the Dolphins early in next spring’s 2021 NFL Draft — in which the team has two first-round picks at this disposal.