Dallas City News

We are entering the fourth season of the Micah Parsons era for the Dallas Cowboys defense and it is very difficult to imagine him accomplishing anything that he hasn’t yet to this point in his career. Parsons has touched just about every sector of NFL greatness to this point and has very little left to conquer for the first time. Obviously everybody wants to see him and his teammates hoist the Lombardi Trophy, but as far as individual achievements are concerned, there are very few that do not bear his name.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t any accolades at all that Parsons has yet to reach. Through three seasons he has not led the NFL in sacks nor has he won a Defensive Player of the Year (he did win Defensive Rookie of the Year).

The worldwide leader believes one of those things is going to change this season.

ESPN has predicted Micah Parsons to lead the NFL in sacks in 2024

When the 2024 season begins for the Dallas Cowboys, a Defensive Player of the Year will be in the building. His name is Myles Garrett and he plays for the Cleveland Browns. Garrett took home his first DPOY last season and did so on the heels of a 14-sack campaign. Parsons also finished with 14 sacks, but the way Garrett played down the stretch won him the award.

Through three seasons, Parsons has increased his sack total every year that he has been in the NFL. He has gone from 13 to 13.5 to 14. Those are truly elite numbers.

Just how elite are we talking, though? Through the first three years of a players’ career only five in NFL history have reached 40 sacks. Parsons is one of them. It is some pretty rarified air.

Stathead

It stands to reason that Parsons would continue this type of pace and if he does improve upon his 2023 campaign like he has the years before then, then some simple math would tell you that he would have at least 14.5 sacks this coming season.

Interestingly enough the folks at ESPN have predicted a tick below his total from last year, but not in a feeble effort. The worldwide leader has predicted Parsons to finish with 13.6 sacks (obviously not possible, just their math) and finish as the top sack artist in the game.

1. Micah Parsons, Dallas Cowboys

Projected 2024 sacks: 13.6

ESPN BET over/under: 13.5

2023 sack total: 14.0

This is Parsons’ first time leading this projection list and comes despite him never topping 14 sacks in a season. But when peeking at Parsons’ underlying numbers, it’s clear that an explosion into the high teens or even record-breaking territory is feasible.

Parsons has led the NFL in pass rush win rate — meaning he beat his blocker within 2.5 seconds at a higher rate than anyone else — in all three seasons of his career. The gap was huge last season, too, as Parsons’ 35% PRWR was well ahead of second-place Myles Garrett’s 30%. Plus, the Cowboys have one of the most favorable schedules of opposing quarterbacks, including matchups with high-sack-rate quarterbacks such as Bryce Young, Russell Wilson/Justin Fields, Deshaun Watson and Daniel Jones (twice).

It is interesting to see how much opposing quarterbacks have to do with this, but you could certainly see Parsons taking advantage of that slate and beefing up the numbers. Obviously we are all hoping for him to do so in parallel with overall team success.

As noted Parsons leading the league in sacks is something that has never happened before. Assuming he does it then he could be in line for that coveted Defensive Player of the Year Award for the first time in his career as well. This would set him up rather nicely to head to the negotiating table with the Cowboys in the offseason.

This encircles the same discussion that we had with CeeDee Lamb that thankfully all came to a conclusion on Monday. Dallas ultimately gave CeeDee a four-year, $136M deal, apparently meeting the $34M AAV that Lamb’s representation did not budge on. Hindsight tells us that the Cowboys would have been wise to get ahead of the Lamb situation by extending him a year ago. If these predictions come to pass then the exact same conversation will be had around Micah Parsons.