Micah Parsons can barely mask his emotion discussing the visual of taking close friend and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to the ground Sunday night after he takes the field from the visitor’s locker room with the Green Bay Packers.
One month wasn’t enough time for Parsons to fully disconnect from the Dallas franchise that drafted him No. 12 overall and watched him grow into a perennial All-Pro pass rusher. Ties were broken by frustrated Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who took multiple steps back in the middle of fractured contract negotiations with Parsons to trade the 26-year-old to Green Bay just one week before Dallas played at Philadelphia in the regular-season opener.
“The guys know Micah’s coming back. It’ll be great to see him,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenhimer said. “Normal week. Another championship opportunity.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur delivered a similar message to his team about their reunion with Kenny Clark. The defensive lineman traded to Dallas along with two first-round picks was the haul necessary to pry Parsons away from the Cowboys after the now infamous six-week contract staredown. Clark has played more defensive snaps than any of his new Cowboys’ teammates.
“I think every game, you’ve got to approach it the same way, whether it’s Week 1 of the regular season, or if you get in the playoffs or the Super Bowl, whatever, you’ve got to come in with the same mindset,” LaFleur said. “The focus is — yeah, you’ve got to know what you’re going against — but the focus always comes back to us and what we’ve got to do and how we need to go out there with the focus and concentration that we need to have. I’m not worried about that (with Parsons).”
Parsons had four double-digit sack seasons in four years in Dallas. He added 1.5 in his first three games with the Packers.
Schottenheimer said he knows Parsons is doing Parsons things for the Packers, primarily rushing off the left edge opposite Rashan Gary. He has eight-plus pressures in two of his three games with Green Bay, and no other player has hit that number twice this season. Parsons leads the NFL with 15 career games with at least eight QB pressures since being drafted, which ranks first in the NFL.
Defenses are overloading the right side of their line to contend with Parsons and losing the pick-your-poison gamble. Gary leads the NFL with 4.5 sacks
Schottenheimer said the Cowboys are excited to see Jadeveon Clowney in a Dallas uniform for the first time on Sunday night. He said there’s no way to predict if Dallas would be better if Parsons was still lining up with the Cowboys.
The Cowboys rank 30th in total defense, 27th in scoring and dead last in passing yards allowed.
“We have not been playing to the standard we want to play to, but if we had Micah, you can’t predict that we’d be playing any better or worse. Those are projections,” he said.