Micah Parsons Sets New Dallas Cowboys Goal: 'Best Player in NFL'

Parsons did it again on Thursday at The Star, conceding that “last year, I was trying to find myself. This year, I know exactly who I need to be.”

FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys defensive star Micah Parsons has a habit of setting goals. Of setting them up high. And then of stating them boldly.

Parsons did it again on Thursday at The Star, conceding that “last year, I was trying to find myself. This year, I know exactly who I need to be.” 

OK. And who is that? 

“The best player in the league.”

Oh.

“I don’t want to be anything short of the No. 1 (player in the NFL),'' he said. "That’s the type of confidence I have. I want to be the best. … I want to be feared.”

And how does that work?

“I have to dominate every game.”

During his rookie season of 2021, Parsons put up such an impressive performance that he won Defensive Rookie of the Year and finished second in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year. Then came the offseason, and Parsons talking of leading the NFL in sacks and even leading the Cowboys in interceptions (even though he's never recorded a pick in college or the NFL.)

All along, his coach, Mike McCarthy, has dangled a carrot by labeling the second-year star as something shy of “elite'' while hopeful of a "big second-year jump.''

McCarthy recently took a moment to detail his four-category breakdown of NFL talent when he was asked Thursday about where Parsons is and where the Pro Bowler and reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year might be going.

“I think it’s important to recognize that every one of these players is a really good football player,” McCarthy said. “There’s no such thing as, ‘He can’t play here,’ or ‘That guy is…’ They’re all really good players.”

There are, in McCarthy’s mind …

1) Good players.

2) Good players who, he said, “have great moments.”

3) “Then the third category,” McCarthy said, “is great players that are just individually able to perform at an extremely high level consistently.”

And then there is one more level …

The highest level, McCarthy said, is an “elite” player - one who consistently performs like a star while also lifting teammates to their highest plane.

“Obviously Micah had a lot of great moments last year, but our desire – and it needs to be his desire – is for him to be an elite player, not just a great player,” McCarthy said. “The elite ones bring everybody with them. How they work, how they compete in practice, how they compete in the weight room, how they compete at garbage-can basketball in the locker room.”

“He has an opportunity to really make a huge impact in our football team.”

Micah gets it. He wants more.

“The great ones just find a way,'' he recently said.

And now comes his 2022 plan: Simply, to be the greatest one.

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