As the Dallas Cowboys gear up for contract talks with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons, fans should get ready for some wild takes as passions fly high when it comes to discussing the long-term outlook of the team.
Jori Epstein recently broke down the state of the Cowboys in the Yahoo Fantasy Football Show and made some intriguing points about the team's culture and status on Dak Prescott's and CeeDee Lamb's deals while also touching on Micah Parsons.
It was her comments on the latter that really lit the internet on fire as she appeared to suggest the Cowboys shouldn't be as sure of extending Parsons as they should be about Dak and CeeDee.
Per Epstein, a defensive coach in the NFL told her: "When the Cowboys are winning, Micah's a Hall of Fame player, when the Cowboys need him most, he's pretty average (...) Chris Jones takes off some plays but he makes them when they matter most. Micah isn't 100% in all plays but he kind of makes them when they matter least."
Epstein admits that seems to be the case with all the Cowboys roster and revealed that members on the front office named other players on that same boat and that it might be a cultural issue.
Is the Micah Parsons' big game narrative fair?
Despite being able to see where the narrative the anonymous coach lays out comes from, it's only fair to wonder if it truly makes sense when digging a little bit deeper.
Trevon Diggs clearly believes it's a bunch of bull as he was quick to take aim at the anonymous NFC coach with a couple of words: Pathetic coach.
You gotta love players standing up for each other even if it means taking shots on social media and it's clear Cowboys players are all in on Micah thanks to what he brings to the table.
There's no question the Cowboys have fallen short in the majority of big games they've played in recent years but to boil it down to Micah "disappearing" in high-stakes scenarios is absolutely unfair.
Take the Green Bay Packers game for example, which would fall in the category of games that we're discussing.
Are we supposed to put no weight on the fact that Matt LaFleur put together an impressive gameplan to limit Parsons through double-teams and triple-teams that even included looks with a "sniffer" player lining up right behind the offensive line to block No. 11? Or on the fact that the secondary was being slowly cooked as it played a heavy dose of zone coverage after not doing so that much all year long? Should we totally ignore that Jordan Love had his sixth-lowest average time to throw of the year because that was clearly the plan all along?
Or at least let's consider the fact that this game, just like Week 5's game versus the San Francisco 49ers, was one that was quickly over and that the Packers weren't in passing situations for basically the entire second half.
It's not like we haven't ever seen Parsons close out games with timely pressures or sacks.
The Cowboys have a lot of legitimate problems with the way they're doing things but the fanbase would be wise to pump the brakes on the latest Parsons' slander.
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