All eyes are on Micah Parsons, though that\u2019s hardly unusual. During the season, it\u2019s usually opposing offensive coaches and players who constantly obsess over Parsons, where he\u2019s at and who\u2019s tasked with trying (and often failing) to stop him. <\/p>\n
Right now, all eyes are on his money, specifically the lack thereof. Parsons\u2019 rookie deal is set to expire after this upcoming season, and extension talks have been slow thus far. To no one\u2019s surprise, Parsons has opted to skip voluntary workouts, though he recently pledged to show up for mandatory OTA\u2019s<\/a>, avoiding any potential fines or added drama. <\/p>\n While everyone is focused on whether or not a deal will happen – spoiler alert: it will, but not before a lot more hand-wringing – the bigger question regarding the superstar defender should be focused on what his role will be in 2025. <\/p>\n Since entering the league in 2021, Parsons has enjoyed a sort of hybrid role for the Cowboys. While his elite pass rush skills have meant that he\u2019s going after the quarterback on the majority of snaps, it hasn\u2019t kept him from being moved around the defense like a chess piece. <\/p>\n When Dan Quinn was in town, Parsons lined up quite literally everywhere. He spent most of his time on the line of scrimmage, but lined up somewhere different every snap. He would frequently start at off-ball linebacker too, before blitzing at the snap. Quinn even had Parsons lined up out wide as a defensive back on a couple isolated occasions. <\/p>\n Parsons\u2019 role became a bit more defined with Mike Zimmer last year, but not restrictively so. While the 2024 season saw Parsons\u2019 highest percentage of snaps on the line of scrimmage, Zimmer essentially built his scheme around Parsons having the discretion to line up wherever he wanted, with the star pass rusher saying this early in the season<\/a>: <\/p>\n The fact that I got the creativity to control things where I know I got to be on my A-game always because I got these other guys depending on me now to like controlling that [alignment]. It kind of gets me more excited, it gets me more into it. It gets that drive, that hunger just a little bit more. Now I feel like I just can\u2019t let this guy [Zimmer] down. He\u2019s giving me the keys to the system. <\/p>\n Parsons still primarily played out on the edges, where he\u2019s most comfortable and most effective, but the freedom to move around at will helped unlock a different animal for the Lion. It became common for Parsons to work as a linebacker mugging the A-gap on third downs, a popular front for Zimmer. He even took 17 charted snaps at defensive tackle, an alignment so unique that offensive linemen didn\u2019t quite know what to do with it. <\/p>\n Zimmer is gone, though, and he\u2019s replaced by Matt Eberflus. While there are some philosophical similarities between Eberflus and Zimmer – they both come from 4-3 backgrounds and call a lot of zone coverage – there are more differences than similarities. <\/p>\n Eberflus has generally been more rigid in his schemes. While Zimmer is hellbent on doing anything and everything to confuse the quarterback – sometimes at the cost of confusing his own players, too – Eberflus has always prioritized simplicity in scheme, preferring to let his players\u2019 natural athleticism do the work for them. <\/p>\n That begs the question of how Eberflus will deploy Parsons. In looking at Eberflus\u2019 defenses in the past, the most we\u2019ve seen in terms of creativity with his pass rushers is having hybrid defensive ends who shift inside on passing downs. Hardly akin to the multiplicity that Parsons is capable of. <\/p>\n That said, Eberflus has never worked with a player like Parsons. <\/p>\n