It’s been a little more than a year since the Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons and began rebuilding the defense in the image Jerry Jones preferred. He spent the millions he didn’t spend on Parsons to make them big, physical and tough, so they could stop the run and stop being pushed around.
The result of his efforts was disastrous on Sunday night, of course. They were “out-physicaled” by the New York Giants, in the words of Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer after their 28-20 loss. They couldn’t get any consistent pressure on the quarterback. They gave up 165 yards on the ground. They only stopped the Giants twice on 11 third downs.
So it was nothing like the brick wall Jones envisioned when he shipped Parsons to the Packers before the start of last season.
But it certainly was ironic.
“What that defense desperately needs,” an NFC scout told me, “is a guy like Micah Parsons.”
Micah Parsons continued his streak of at least 12 sacks in a season last year, which began in his rookie year with the Cowboys. (Photo by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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It’s way too early to judge this Dallas defense yet, and maybe the next Parsons is there somewhere, waiting to break out. But that emergence needs to come quickly, before the Cowboys waste yet another season, because this defense doesn’t seem to have what Parsons used to give them: a playmaker, a game-wrecker, and someone to make something happen when it really counts.
And after one night, it’s not even clear who that breakout star could be. Maybe safety Caleb Downs, the Cowboys’ first-round draft pick, who at least had a mild impact — particularly when he lined up at safety instead of in the slot. He even got a sack and two other pressures, even though he blitzed just three times, according to Next Gen Stats.
But Quinnen Williams, who cost the Cowboys defensive tackle Mazi Smith plus a first- and a second-round pick in a trade and then got a three-year, $105.9 million contract extension in August? He pressured the quarterback just once in 28 tries, according to Next Gen Stats, even though he was single-teamed 17 times. And Kenny Clark, the centerpiece of the Parsons trade? Not a single pressure in 28 tries despite being mostly matched up against Francis Mauigoa, a rookie guard.
Quinnen Williams was among the Cowboys players who disappointed in Week 1. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
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Obviously, those two weren’t even speed bumps for the Giants’ inside-outside rushing attack either — an attack that ran over and around the Cowboys at a clip of five yards per carry. And the entire defense forced only one turnover, even though the Giants tried to help by putting the ball on the ground four times.
Or to put it another way: Not a single defensive player had a tangible impact on the game.
“We just probably had a little unrealistic expectations in terms of what we could do, especially on the defensive side of the ball with all the new faces and a brand new coordinator,” Cowboys VP Stephen Jones said in an interview on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Monday morning. “It’s not like they were popping explosives. They were grinding it out. We didn’t make the plays to get them off the field.”
Some of the blame for that goes to what Jerry Jones alluded to in his radio interview the next day — the massive amount of changes the Cowboys made to a defense that gave up more points than any other team last season. They had five new starters on defense, and 60% of their snaps on Sunday night went to players who didn’t play at all for the Cowboys in 2025.
And, of course, they have a new, first-time defensive coordinator in 34-year-old Christian Parker, who came over from the Philadelphia Eagles and promised an aggressive new scheme that blitzed on 44.4% of the Giants’ pass plays. But it’s not like they rattled Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, who completed 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns and ran eight times for 59 yards (not including his three kneel-downs).
Christian Parker’s first game as Cowboys defensie coordinator ended with zero sacks and loss to the Giants. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)
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And when there was no blitz, there was no pressure — two pressures on 20 four-man rushes, per Next Gen Stats. In most cases, there was no coverage either. Dart was 17 of 19 for 200 yards and two touchdowns against a four-man pass rush, and all three of his touchdowns were to wide-open receivers. He had unbelievable success throwing to open players across the middle and players uncovered in the flat. Running back Devin Singletary caught four dump-off passes for 22 yards that Next Gen Stats said included a startling 40 yards after the catch.
So where was the coverage? Where was the pressure? Where were the playmakers?
“When there’s no pressure and guys are that open, it makes it seem like guys are just standing around,” the scout told me. “Maybe they were unsure where to go or what to do in the new scheme. They can fix that.
“But they had to be asking themselves, ‘Why couldn’t someone just make a play?’”
Here’s a better question: Who would that playmaker be on this defense? Who can do that on a consistent basis, the way Parsons once did?”
Schottenheimer thinks the playmakers are there. “Every day we went against them in practice,” he said. “The defense we saw in practice was not what we saw [Sunday] night.”
Jerry Jones still thinks his bold plan for the post-Parsons era will somehow come together, too.
“I saw nothing on review yesterday that tells us that we should depart away from the plan,” Jones said. “The facts are we got a lot of new people on defense doing different things than they’ve been doing. So that’s got to come together. If we keep our head down and keep working on it, it will be better than it was Sunday night.”
Kenny Clark didn’t log a pressure in the Cowboys’ loss to the Giants. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Maybe that’s true. Maybe Williams will re-emerge as the force he once was with the Jets — albeit four years ago. Maybe Clark will become the run-stuffing dominator Jones insisted he was when he came over from Green Bay. Maybe Rashan Gary, who cost the Cowboys a fourth-round pick this offseason, will become the player who had 7.6 sacks in the first seven games last season, instead of the player who’s had none in the 10 games since.
Or maybe the playmaking will come from behind the line. Downs has breakout potential. Cornerback DaRon Bland once had nine interceptions in 2023 (though only one in the 20 games he’s played over two-plus years since then). They have a lot of hopes in Dallas for speedy linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, too.
But that’s the problem. The Cowboys always have hope and promise. What they need out of this defense is production, starting when they return home to face the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon. And they need someone who can make it happen every time he steps on the field.
“The thing about [Parsons] was that even if he had a bad game, he changed things just by his presence,” an offensive assistant coach told me. “You had to game-plan around him. You had to account for him on every snap. Because if you forgot about him for a second, he was up in your face.”
“That made everyone else’s job easier. That made his teammates more dangerous. And that made the Cowboys always difficult to play against.
“I just don’t think they have a player like that anymore.”
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