Photo by Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire
If the Dallas Cowboys are going to make a Super Bowl push this season, they’ll need the defense to become a more fearsome unit.
DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons are having a friendly competition to see who can sack the quarterback more in 2022. This is great news for the Dallas Cowboys.
This week at Cowboys’ OTAs, Lawrence told Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News he’s looking to take the sack crown back from Parsons, who posted 13 sacks as a rookie. Last year, Lawrence missed 10 games and totaled three sacks of his own.
However, Parsons isn’t looking to give back the title. He talked about the rivalry with his accomplished teammate, per the Dallas Morning News. Via NFL.com:
“It makes me want to compete. It’s healthy for the locker room. I want D-Law to step up. I want D-Law to be who he is. I’m not taking that away from him. But sorry to tell him, he’s never getting that back. I want him to get all the enjoyment that he possibly can, feed his head so he can be a 10-sack guy, great. But if 10’s the number, I’m going for 20. You’ve just got to go out there and compete. It’s just going to be a race to the quarterback, like it or not. I’m excited.”
For Dallas to run it back in the NFC East and then make considerable noise in January, the duo of Lawrence and Parsons will be critical. The Cowboys lost a couple of important offensive contributors in receiver Amari Cooper and right tackle La’el Collins, trading the former and releasing the latter.
Under third-year head coach Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys are still looking for their postseason win. For Dallas to finally reach that milestone and potentially go beyond it, the defense will need to improve simply to keep the team level with 2021’s performance, barring a surprise from the offensive personnel.
And alongside of corner Trevon Diggs, nobody is more important to making sure the standard is raised more than Parsons and Lawrence.
