The Dallas Cowboys were off in Week 7, which gives the 3-3 squad a week to return one of its most important players.
The Cowboys have been without their top defender, star EDGE Micah Parsons, for their last two games. What happened to Parsons, and when can he return?
Latest on Micah Parsons Injury and Return To Play
Parsons suffered a high ankle sprain during Dallas’ Week 4 victory over the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football.
Cowboys All-Pro Edge Rusher Micah Parsons is being carted to the locker room
Here is the play where the injury happened pic.twitter.com/ODjV5SpVPj
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365)
Parsons had played all 54 possible games to begin his career and was off to another strong start in 2024. His surface stats look middling, as he has only one sack, 14 tackles, and six quarterback hits. But that belies Parsons’ actual impact.
At the time of his injury in Week 4, Parsons ranked tied for fifth in pressures (21). He had accounted for over 45% of Dallas’ pressures as well, second-highest behind Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions.
It remains to be seen whether Parsons can return following the Cowboys’ bye for Dallas’ Week 8 game at the San Francisco 49ers. The good news is that Dallas didn’t put him on injured reserve (IR), meaning they didn’t believe he’d be sidelined for four games.
Head coach Mike McCarthy will likely have more concrete updates on Parsons’ status when the Cowboys return to practice this week. As of Monday, he had an encouraging but vague update on whether Parsons would be available on Sunday.
Mike McCarthy said Micah Parsons (ankle) is improving and spent bye week here getting treatment, rehab. Too early to tell on Eric Kendricks (shoulder) and DaRon Bland (foot) until Wednesday.
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher)
In addition to Parsons, the Cowboys have also been without DeMarcus Lawrence and Brandin Cooks, both of whom have gone on injured reserve within the last three weeks.
Cowboys Have Struggled With or Without Parsons
Dallas cannot get its top defender back soon enough, as the Cowboys have been a largely hopeless unit this season. Through Sunday’s Week 7 games, Dallas’ defense ranked:
- 31st in points per game allowed (28.0)
- 30th in expected points added per play (-0.09)
- 30th in rushing success rate (53%)
No matter how you slice it, the first season under defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer has fallen well short of expectations.
PFN’s Defense+ metric ranks all 32 defenses based on a cocktail of statistics, such as success rate, EPA per play, pressure without blitzing, points per drive, and others weighted according to importance. The Cowboys are the 23rd-ranked unit this season and are on the decline, as Pro Football Network’s Ben Rolfe wrote:
“The departure of Dan Quinn was always likely to lead to some regression for the Cowboys’ defense, which has been the case so far in 2024. This year, they rank 23rd with a Defense+ below 50 for the first time since 2020. That has dragged Dallas from an above-average unit to a below-average one, and there’s not much to indicate improvement is coming.
“The Cowboys rank in the bottom five in the NFL against the run and in red-zone efficiency while sitting in the bottom 10 in points per drive and defensive EPA per game. Their best defensive player, Micah Parsons, has been absent with an injury, which isn’t helping their cause.”
The last part of that may change soon, but Dallas has struggled with Parsons on the field as well. Consider these splits:
- Cowboys With Parsons on Field: 5.8 yards per play allowed, 61% success rate
- Cowboys With Parsons off Field: 5.6 yards per play allowed, 57% success rate
Dallas has also actually generated better pressure with Parsons off the field (38% to 33% with him on) despite blitzing at a lower rate without him.
Now, in this case, it’s fallacious to suggest that Parsons would somehow make the Cowboys’ defense worse. Every unit would improve with an All-Pro edge rusher parachuting in, but it does illustrate how Dallas’ defensive problems run deeper than Parsons’ absence and how its season might not be saved even when he does return.
