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https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/08/22/trey-lance-secret-injury-micah-parsons-deshaun-watson
OXNARD, Calif. — My conversation with Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn started with my trying to get a historical comparison for Micah Parsons out of him. He didn’t have one, and eventually we meandered right back there, after it hit me how he was describing him.
This sounds like the inverse of Rob Gronkowski, I said, as he described Parsons’s uniqueness.
Quinn smiled and said he liked that one. My logic was simple. Gronkowski was a nightmare for defenses from the minute the huddle was broken because that was when they had to figure out what to do with him. Put a defensive back on him, his team checks to a run, and that corner or safety is blocked into the third row. Put a linebacker over him, Gronk’s waltzing down the seam for a big gain. There literally was no right answer.
Ditto with Parsons. When the offense breaks the huddle, the 23-year-old must be accounted for. If he’s off the line, you can’t assign a back to handle him, lest he blitz and that back be responsible for slowing him. If he’s on the line, you have to treat him as if he’s DeMarcus Lawrence coming off the edge, because he almost is. And if he drops into coverage or plays the run, you’ll likely have to waste a resource accounting for him as a rusher.
“Yeah, it’s the reserve of that matchup: Like, how are we gonna guard this guy?” said Quinn of the Gronk comp. “With him, it’s like, whenever you have to double a really good receiver, it’s hard when he has to move around to different spots. Not that they’re always doubling him, but it’s, O.K., he’s over here, he’s this; he’s over there, he’s that.”
That’s why when I went to Cowboys camp, I felt like it was one of the few where the quarterback really isn’t the most interesting player—and that’s no shot at Dak Prescott.
OXNARD, Calif. — My conversation with Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn started with my trying to get a historical comparison for Micah Parsons out of him. He didn’t have one, and eventually we meandered right back there, after it hit me how he was describing him.
This sounds like the inverse of Rob Gronkowski, I said, as he described Parsons’s uniqueness.
Quinn smiled and said he liked that one. My logic was simple. Gronkowski was a nightmare for defenses from the minute the huddle was broken because that was when they had to figure out what to do with him. Put a defensive back on him, his team checks to a run, and that corner or safety is blocked into the third row. Put a linebacker over him, Gronk’s waltzing down the seam for a big gain. There literally was no right answer.
Ditto with Parsons. When the offense breaks the huddle, the 23-year-old must be accounted for. If he’s off the line, you can’t assign a back to handle him, lest he blitz and that back be responsible for slowing him. If he’s on the line, you have to treat him as if he’s DeMarcus Lawrence coming off the edge, because he almost is. And if he drops into coverage or plays the run, you’ll likely have to waste a resource accounting for him as a rusher.
“Yeah, it’s the reserve of that matchup: Like, how are we gonna guard this guy?” said Quinn of the Gronk comp. “With him, it’s like, whenever you have to double a really good receiver, it’s hard when he has to move around to different spots. Not that they’re always doubling him, but it’s, O.K., he’s over here, he’s this; he’s over there, he’s that.”
That’s why when I went to Cowboys camp, I felt like it was one of the few where the quarterback really isn’t the most interesting player—and that’s no shot at Dak Prescott.
