Dallas Cowboys take Micah Parsons with their first-round pick
With Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II coming off the board before the Dallas Cowboys were on the clock, Jerry Jones made a shocking move by trading back with an NFC East rival in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Dallas Cowboys moved back to the 12th pick and took Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons. Although the […]
With Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II coming off the board before the Dallas Cowboys were on the clock, Jerry Jones made a shocking move by trading back with an NFC East rival in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Dallas Cowboys moved back to the 12th pick and took Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons. Although the trade was made with arguably their biggest rival, Dallas was able to pick up an extra top-100 pick (84th overall) and took a consensus top-10 talent.
The Penn State product opted out of the 2020 season, but he had a monster junior campaign in 2019. As a junior, he recorded 109 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 5 pass deflections, and 4 forced fumbles.
Parsons is 6'3, 246 pounds and ran a 4.39 40-yard dash at his pro day. Many draft gurus believe he's the best defensive prospect in this draft class and think that he could develop into one of the premier linebackers in the game.
However, although Parsons has elite traits and absurd potential, I don't think it was the right decision by the Dallas Cowboys' front office. Parsons is an off-ball linebacker with off the field concerns, and I'm not sure how he fits in Dan Quinn's scheme. At Penn State, he was primarily used as an edge-rusher and blitzer, which Quinn doesn't feature in his defense.
With the top two cornerbacks off the board, the Cowboys should've taken Rashawn Slater or Greg Newsome. Rashawn Slater is the best offensive lineman in this draft class (you can read my scouting report on him here) and Greg Newsome is right there with Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain in my opinion.
The Cowboys missed out on a ton of value in the first-round, but they sill have 10 more picks to revamp their defense.
Dallas' biggest team needs are cornerback, free safety, and defensive tackle and they'll look to address those positions in the later rounds.
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