He’s honored, but Dallas Cowboys’ Micah Parsons shuns the Lawrence Taylor comparisons
As sensational as Dallas Cowboys rookie linebacker Micah Parsons has been this season, his best assets may be his self-awareness and burning desire for greatness.
He calls himself a hungry lion, albeit a humble beast, but he is far from precocious and he suffers from no loss of confidence.
So Parsons smartly declines to compare himself to Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor as so many others have done of late — considering he is a true contender to become the first person to win Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors since Taylor did it with the New York Giants in 1981.
But he is looking forward to showing up and showing out on the big stage of Gotham City when the Cowboys (9-4) play at the Giants (4-9) on Sunday.
It’s where Taylor made his claim to fame and, given the media market, it’s an a prime opportunity to continue to fuel the fire of his candidacy.
“I hope so. I’m hoping to have another great performance and go out there and play my best ball,” Parsons said. “So I’m excited about the matchup.”
That Parsons is already playing the best ball of not only anybody on the Cowboys but perhaps the entire league is why his name is getting mentioned in the same breath as Taylor.
He leads the Cowboys with 12 sacks through 13 games and that includes a sack in each of the last six games, becoming the third rookie in NFL history to accomplish such a feat. He needs 2.5 sacks to surpass Jevon Kearse’s rookie sack record of 14.5 sacks, set in 1999.
And he is doing this while playing both end and linebacker for the Cowboys. But it’s his ability to get the quarterback that sets him apart and has caused the comparisons to Taylor.
Parsons humbly submits that it is too early for such comps.
“I would definitely say it’s really too early,” Parsons said. “I could see the similarities, but L.T. was completely different, man. It’s an honor that people are doing that, but to be compared to a Hall of Famer so early on, it’s just not ready to be in the conversation yet.”
“It’s a long way to go. He had 142 [sacks], so I have 130 more to go before we just start saying, ‘Yeah that was L.T.’ Let’s just chill and keep enjoying the work that I keep putting in to get there.”
There is no question that Parsons and the Cowboys are enjoying the work. But that won’t and hasn’t stopped the comparisons.
Giants running back Saquon Barkley couldn’t resist.
“I’ve never really seen anything like him. He’s really L.T.-like, to be honest,” Barkley said to Yahoo! Sports. “It is what it is. He’s insane. Every week, [Parsons is] one of those guys that, even if I can’t watch his game, I’ll look and say, ‘What is he doing?’
“The sky is really the limit with him. If he keeps working hard and keeping his head on straight, he can be even better than he is now. That’s the scary thing.”
Hall of Fame Cowboys quarterback and FOX NFL analyst Troy Aikman says comparing players to legends helps put the modern performance into a better perspective.
But while it may be too early to put anyone in the category of Taylor, he said Parsons is already proving that greatness is in him.
“There’s no question that Micah Parsons is going to be special,” Aikman said. “Is he going to be as special as Lawrence Taylor? He could be, but I think that comparison might be a little unfair just yet just right now to Lawrence Taylor. But he certainly has that kind of game-changing ability and impact, and to have that on the defensive side of the ball is unusual. There haven’t been a lot of those types of guys.”
Again none of this is lost on Parsons, although he was born in 1999, the same year that Taylor was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and 18 years after his record-breaking rookie season.
He knows exactly who L.T. is and what it would mean to follow in his footsteps with double defensive honors as a rookie. And yet he also acknowledges he still has more work to do.
“He is arguably the best defensive player to ever play football,” Parsons said of Taylor. “To be in that elite company would be an extreme honor and be a blessing.
“At the end of the day, it sounds good right now,” he said. “ I still have to finish. We still have a long stretch left. I got to keep doing what I am doing to even think about those types of things and finish this season off strong. I still got a lot of work to put in and other guys around the league are still dominating so it’s not something to get comfortable with, but it’s definitely a good thought to have.”
That these are not new thoughts or new goals for Parsons is what impresses the Cowboys the most. Not necessarily winning defensive rookie of the year or defensive player of the honors, but his drive and thirst for greatness.
Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn pointed out that Parsons texted him Monday morning, just hours after the team got back from last Sunday’s 27-20 victory against Washington. The rookie had two sacks, including a forced fumble that turned into a 37-yard return for a touchdown by Dorance Armstrong. He asked “what do we got this week.”
“That tells me that he’s down for a challenge and what we gotta get done,” Quinn said. “I said, ‘Hey man, I’m still grading this game, so I’ll get back to you. Give me a minute.’ It’s 9:30 in the morning. ‘I’ll get back to you.’ But I think that kind of attitude shows that he’s willing to go [the extra mile].”
Said team owner Jerry Jones: “What has surprised me is how internally driven he is. That you couldn’t see when you drafted him.”
Parsons says he has had a dominant mindset similar to Taylor since he started playing football. That drive and attitude are just part of who he is. And it’s always been there.
“I feel like you either got it or you don’t,” Parsons said. “That drive I have inside of me, wanting to be great, wanting to do more, wanting more on my plate just comes with wanting to do this. I always talk about my destiny. I feel like I am destined to do this. And that is why I put so much time into it. I just want to be a winner. I want to be something.
“Nobody can become something by sitting back and watching and waiting for something to happen. I am trying to initiate it to happen.”
So whether they are comps to Taylor or not, Parsons certainly appears to be destined for greatness.
