NFL media takes embarrassing stance on Cowboys' Micah Parsons
Dallas Cowboys superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons has officially been done wrong by NFL media and it's time for them to be called out and put on blast. For the first couple of years of his career in the league, Parsons has received votes to be Defensive Player of the Year and has two First-Team […]
Dallas Cowboys superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons has officially been done wrong by NFL media and it's time for them to be called out and put on blast.
For the first couple of years of his career in the league, Parsons has received votes to be Defensive Player of the Year and has two First-Team All-Pro honors. This year, he should've gotten his third. Instead, voters awarded it to Myles Garrett (Cleveland Browns) and the T.J. Watt (Pittsburgh Steelers).
It's the latter that makes it an embarrassing decision from the 50 media members who send in their votes at the end of each regular season to determine who will receive legacy-defining All-Pro honors.
Let's break it down and start with the main reason why voters argued Watt was the better edge rusher than Parsons: Sacks.
And I'll give it to T.J. and the Steelers, it's remarkable that he led the league with 19 sacks this season in 17 games. Even better is that he had six multiple-sack games in the same year. But when it comes down to it, those sacks accounted for merely 3.4% of Watt's pass rushing snaps and 2% of his total snaps.
Is that enough to determine the impact that a player makes on the field and compare it to the rest of the league? Consider this, Watt is double-teamed 14% of the time while Parsons, who had 14 sacks this season, was double-teamed 35% of the time, per ESPN. That's more than double!
It's an 11-on-11 game where the numbers advantage is everything per coaches themselves and somehow voters expect us to believe that drawing the highest double-team in the rate is meaningless because of a five-sack difference? That's 1% of the plays Watt rushed the passer this season.
Voters have to do better than glance over a box score to determine the impact of a player on the field. And when a guy is getting sent two or three blockers at over double the rate that somebody else, it's gotta count for something. Let's remove the percentage element of it: We're talking about 150+ snaps more where Micah was doubled. And we can't seem to believe that makes a difference in the number of sacks he gets at the end of the year?
What's more, even with the double teams and with fewer pass rushing snaps (551 to 513), Parsons had 27 more pressures, 22 more hurries and a pass rush win rate that ranked first in the NFL to Watt's 18th per PFF. Per ESPN's pass rush win rate, Parsons also beat T.J.
And that's without factoring in how much Parsons is able to move around the field, having 107 snaps away from the defensive line to Watt's 20 and from every alignment in the DL.
The good news? It's fuel for the fire for Parsons, who will be playing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday to kick off the Wild Card Round against one of the best offensive lines in the postseason. He'll have somewhat to take it out on.
