A lot has been made about Dallas Cowboys superstar defender Micah Parsons taking on a different role now that Mike Zimmer is calling the defense and not Dan Quinn.
As opposed to the first three years of his career, Parsons is expected to move around a lot more instead of lining up as an edge rusher every down. In training camp, the Cowboys showed a lot of defensive looks where he was lined up as an off-ball linebacker.
"Y'all are going to see I'm going to move around a lot," Parsons told reporters on Wednesday . "I don't think there is a side, I got my own personnels and stuff. It's going to be exciting (...) I think I'll probably play every single person and I think this is the first year where I could be in the (2i technique alignment), I could be in the three (technique). I could be in the four (technique), I mean it doesn't matter, I could be a linebacker, I could be in the slot, I could almost be the safety if you look at it that way."
Despite his excitement to be unleashed in a much more versatile and unpredictable fashion, Parsons might have to wait beyond Week 1 for that. The reason why has nothing to do with him nor Zimmer but rather with the Browns offensive line: Left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. won't start on Sunday and Cleveland might be forced to play with a backup like Sam Hudson or move Jack Conklin to the blind side and play a backup at right tackle.
Either way, there's going to be a weak link on the Browns' offensive front, as A to Z Sports Browns beat writer Brandon Little explained to me in a recent article:
"Cleveland is either going to switch Jack Conklin to the left side or roll with swing tackle James Hudson. Both options are big risks because they may not work out. Hudson has been below average, while it is tough to ask a veteran player to flip his pass sets even if he has done it before.
Add in that you’re going to have to stop Micah Parsons, it gets that much more worrisome. Cleveland is going to send David Njoku in the way of Parsons as much as they can to help with some of the blocking. Cleveland holds Njoku’s blocking in high regard and they will need him to be on the field most of the way Sunday." - Brandon Little
This is a Jimmies and Joes game before it's Xs and Os. Even if the Cowboys want to move Parsons around, it'd be an odd decision if they didn't seek to exploit a mismatch, which they're almost guaranteed to get by the Browns being forced to play a backup tackle in either side of the offense.
If Zimmer wants to tap into that advantage, it could turn out to be a very traditional-looking day for Parsons, who has mostly been a defensive end in his first three years in the NFL.
Going into gameday , how he is deployed in this specific context is one of the most intriguing decisions I can't wait to see from the new defensive coordinator in town.
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