Blogging The Boys
If Micah Parsons starts missing games for the Dallas Cowboys, this season will begin on a sour note.
Speaking on Tuesday to reporters, owner and general manager Jerry Jones did not have confidence that Parsons would suit up for the Cowboys for their week-one matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“No, absolutely not,” Jones said if he had confidence. “A big part of that is his decision. How would I know that? But I’m urgent.”
Through 11 training camp practices in Southern California, Parsons has not participated on the field in any capacity. He has been seen wearing his No. 11 jersey on the sideline while talking to players and maneuvering around the field. He has also remained in meetings and walkthrough practices.
If Parsons were to hold out from the week-one game, he would be the first Cowboy to not play in a game due to contractual issues since Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith in 1993. Seeking an extension, Smith held out of the first two games of the season before receiving a four-year, $13.6 million deal. He would go on to lead the NFL in rushing yards (1,486) that season on his way to an MVP win and a Super Bowl victory.
With this season quickly approaching, Jones said that he is feeling the urgency of the situation.
“I stay urgent,” Jones said. “We’ll work through it, or we won’t work through it.”
Brian Schottenheimer had his first live opportunity to run the Cowboys offense on Tuesday.
“Yeah, that was fun,” said Schottenheimer. “It’s always fun. You know, you get a chance to do this and you’ve done it for a long time, but you get just kind of lost in the moment like, ‘OK, hey, what down distance is it? OK, what’s the situation? OK, who’s in the game?’
“But, look, at the end of the day, it’s something that you think about. When you get the job and you think about doing it, but when you’re out there doing it, the instincts take over and you just call the game.”
It was expectedly a mixed bag of big plays and a couple key misses, but the glaring concern was on the ground, where the Cowboys struggled mightily over the course of the 2024 season before declaring, under Schottenheimer, that there will be a renewed focus on making sure the offense could be physical and “shove the ball up the opponent’s ass” at any given point.
The Rams, however, begged to differ, routinely stuffing the run at the line of scrimmage or behind it, and Schottenheimer went so far as to draw a circle around that portion of his otherwise successful offensive outing that...
