Dallas Cowboys fans have not taken the team's blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills in stride. In fairness, the Cowboys laid another egg in a statement road game, but the loss sparked a polarizing conversation surrounding arguably the greatest pass rusher in the world: Micah Parsons.
The conversation? Move Parsons to off-ball linebacker when teams like the Bills abandon the pass and emphasize the run.
Buffalo's strategy worked to perfection as they racked up over 260 rushing yards, including a career-high 169 from running back James Cook. In doing so, they completely negated Parsons and the Cowboys prolific pass rush, which spawned the linebacker discourse.
If you can believe it, the conversation spanned four days on social media. Multiple prominent Cowboys talking heads have fought the good fight and pointed out the lunacy behind moving Parsons out of position.
Eventually, Parsons caught wind of the discussion on Thursday (!) and promptly ended it with a flaming tweet aimed at fans.
Its because teams are running the ball and people like to panic ! Im Probaly leading every category in pash rushing besides sacks! People are nuts ! And if people watch film they take shots and pass more when I’m off ball or out the game! We have to get better period! https://t.co/pmruGoe96q
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) December 21, 2023
Micah Parsons dunked on Cowboys fans over foolish LB discussion
Parsons makes a good point: Watching your team get gashed against the run is deflating and hopeless. It's no surprise fans have overreacted. That said, Parsons ranks at or near the top of the leaderboard in every pass-rushing metric, including pressures, pass-rush win rate, double-team rate and pass-rush efficiency.
Playing Parsons at linebacker would not have helped Dallas' run defense in Buffalo. Maybe, just maybe, the run D isn't broken. Perhaps it was a bad day at the office. The Cowboys missed 17 tackles in the game, coming from a team that has the fewest missed tackles in the NFL by a significant margin.
That alone is a recipe for disaster, but Dallas' interior defenders were blocked into the second level virtually all game. That put the Cowboys' 200-pound linebackers up against Buffalo's 300-pound linemen. Do you really expect Damone Clark and Markquese Bell to shed those blocks and bring down a ball-carrier?
Micah Parsons just dunked on half of Cowboys Nation and I’m here for it.
— Mauricio Rodríguez (@MauNFL) December 21, 2023
Clark and Bell have to be more decisive, but their job wasn't made easier by Dallas getting bullied in the trenches. Parsons arguably would've had a lesser impact than the starting LBs. Because he's not an off-ball linebacker. It's common sense.
Nobody is saying that Parsons shouldn't be moved around. He's been disruptive when aligned over defensive tackles. Stand him up. Put his hand in the dirt. Just don't move him off the line of scrimmage.
The Cowboys tried playing Parsons off-ball against the Packers last year and Green Bay rushed for over 200 yards. He's a negative run defender at linebacker. There's oodles of evidence that proves he's better off on the LOS, but it's really as simple as this: he's one of the two best pass rushers in the world. Play him at a position that allows him to rush the quarterback.
End of discussion.