FRISCO — As I listened to Micah Parsons talk Wednesday about his plans to be the best defensive player in the NFL in 2024 and how the Dallas Cowboys were going to use him, it made me think of Denzel Washington’s character in a Man on Fire.
As the burned out military operative turned alcoholic turned body guard was about to exact revenge on the assailants who kidnapped the little girl he was hired to protect, his handler made a simple and subtle statement: “Creasy’s art is death, He’s about to paint his masterpiece.”
Certainly, that’s what Parsons plans to do to opposing quarterbacks while terrorizing the NFL this season, starting in Sunday’s season opener at the Cleveland Browns.
With three Pro Bowls, three All-Pro selections, three top-three finishes in NFL Defensive Player of the Year balloting in his first three seasons in the league, Parsons is already known as a quarterback killer.
He has recorded at least 13 sacks in each of his first three seasons, capped by a career-high 14 in 2023. With 40.5 career sacks, Parsons is just the fifth player since the NFL began officially tracking sacks in 1982 to have 40 or more across their first three seasons.
He joins a star-studded list that includes Hall of Famers Reggie White (52.0) and Derrick Thomas (43.5) , Dwight Freeney (40.0) and Aldon Smith (40.0).
But Parsons wants more and used coach Mike McCarthy’s theme for the season about how the team has rooted over the past five years and is ready to blossom to segue into a chilling analogy about his own plans.
“It’s the killer, the hitman, and the assassin,” he said. “The killer is sloppy. He’s probably going to get caught. He’s not very good at what he does, but he’s a killer, you know? He’s raw in the streets.
“Then you got the hitman. The hitman might not get caught, but you know who did it. He’s probably a little bit more clean. And the assassin, you don’t even know he’s there, you don’t even know he’s done it.
“Each time you really want to develop, and I think at this fourth year mark, for me, I think I’m ready to be an assassin.”
Parsons says he’s ready to live out his destiny as an assassin because of new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer’s plans to use him. If you thought he lined up all over the defense under former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, then consider him to be a hidden and moving assassin under Zimmer.
According to Pro Football Focus, Parsons lined up 41.3 percent of the time on the defensive line, 55.2 percent at linebacker and 3.5 percent at defensive back as a rookie in 2021. In 2022, when he started playing primarily at defensive end, the numbers were 88.1, 18.1 and .8, and there were 87.2, 12.7 and .1 in 2023.
In 2024, the Cowboys have packages for him to line up at every position on defense except cornerback. That includes every spot on the defensive line and linebacker.
“Y’all going to see I’m going to move around a lot,” Parsons said. “I got my own personnel [packages] and stuff. It’s going to be exciting, I’m going to say that. I’ll probably play every single position. This is the first year where I can be in the two aisle, three, the four, it don’t matter. I can be a linebacker, I can be in the slot, I can almost be a safety, if you look at it that way.”
Parsons says he and Zimmer have grown closer through meetings every morning in training camp and they are on the same page. He has grown and matured as a player and Zimmer has a vision of greatness for him.
“I think we align,” Parsons said. “I think I just had to show Mike what I’m capable of and what I can do. Everything that he thought I would be, I probably have achieved that and more. He came up to me and said, ‘You say you want to do this and you want to do that, if you just do this detailed stuff you can be the best ever’.”
Parsons certainly wants to be the best ever. He has talked about that since his rookie season.
Of course, he has never achieved his personal goals of leading the NFL in sacks and winning the NFL DPOY. He has not had the team success he covets in the playoffs.
He plans for it all to come together in 2024.
“Man, I would say, it wouldn’t really be about the number,” Parsons said when asked about his sack goals. “It probably be like, damn, ‘This dude is really the best in the world.’ So its not really not the numbers: it’s letting the world know this dude is really the best.
“I feel like I can win against anybody, anywhere, it really don’t matter … I want to be the best for myself and this team and get to where we want to go.”
If he does that, he would have painted a masterpiece for the ages.
