The Dallas Cowboys are heading home to Texas on Thursday after weeks away at training camp in Oxnard, California, and following the team’s final padded practice on the west coast Wednesday, three-time All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons became reflective.
Not about how he plays the game of football. So far through three seasons, he has that component of life in the NFL on lock. Parsons is one of just five players since sacks became an official statistic in 1982 to total at least 40 (40.5) in his first three NFL seasons. Parsons had his best all-around campaign in 2023 by leading the league in quarterback pressures (103), quarterback pressure rate (21.8%) and pass-rush win rate (35.3%). Parsons additionally amassed a career-high 14.0 sacks, tied with 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett for the seventh-most in the NFL.
Parsons accomplished all of this while being double-teamed on 35% of his pass rushes last season, the most in the NFL among edge players, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. There wasn’t another edge rusher in the NFL who was double-teamed at a rate of 30% or higher in 2023.
What Parsons opened up about specifically was about how and who he is as a leader.