Matt Eberflus and Micah Parsons held a private meeting to address the elephant in the room ahead of the 2025 Cowboys season

It's the same question Dan Quinn faced and later, Mike Zimmer: How is new Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator planning to use Micah Parsons? 

There's no easy answer. Parsons is so versatile it's silly not to use it. But really, his best football comes from him playing edge rusher. Is the trade-off worth it? Yes? No? Sometimes, sometimes not? 

Well, it's a decision that led to Eberflus and Parsons sitting down for thirty minutes at minicamp to hammer down. 

"We had a meeting—him and I had about a half-hour meeting yesterday on that very subject, just him and I in my office," Eberflus told the Doomsday Podcast during an exclusive interview. "And for him, you have to move this guy around. Now, what's great about our current roster is that we have other rushers now that can rush. So to pay attention to one particular rusher is going to be more difficult than if you just had one on one side. That's going to be a good thing too."

Now, when Eberflus says he needs to move Parsons around, it could mean two very different things. Either play the star defender at edge rusher and off-ball linebacker. But my money is on it meaning moving him across the defensive line only. 

Eberflus agreed with Ed Werder during the podcast when suggesting Parsons' best comes when matched up against guards, where his speed is an overwhelming factor. 

The reason why I wouldn't expect Parsons to play plenty of snaps at off-ball linebacker goes back to Eberflus' comments in January when he was initially hired. 

"Micah is a premier pass rusher, we're going to use him that way, certainly," Eberflus said earlier in the year. "He's a heck of an athlete and can do a lot of different things for us on defense. When you have a guy like that, you want to be able to utilize his skill set. As we're around him more, we'll be able to see what that skill set is and really take advantage of that."

If Eberflus is to move Parsons around the defensive line, there's one thing he'll need to do that he rarely has in previous stops calling his defense: Blitz.

Some of Parsons' finest pass rushing has been the result of being isolated against a guard or even a center. But that's easier said than done, as the interior of an offensive line can get real messy real fast. Quinn and Zimmer worked around that with pressure designs that left the opponents' weak link on the O-line through blitzes.

For now, we know Eberflus plans to move Parsons around. Now it's about honing in on the how.