Everything involving the Dallas Cowboys commands attention. Jerry Jones’ franchise, for better or worse, hasn’t done much in free agency yet. But they still dominated the news cycle last week, courtesy of Micah Parsons’ beef with DeMarcus Lawrence.
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After Lawrence left the Cowboys in free agency, he took a parting shot at the organization. When Parsons got word of Lawrence’s diss, he responded on Twitter/X. And Lawrence, naturally, returned serve.
Stephen A. Smith and Nick Wright commented on Parsons’ and Lawrence’s barbs last Friday. Michael Irvin wasn’t a Speak panelist on Friday, so didn’t get to analyze the situation. He finally got the opportunity during Monday’s episode and wound up siding with the current Cowboy over the former one.
“This is an easy pick… I’m absolutely going to go with Micah Parsons here in this little spiff… I love [DeMarcus Lawrence]… [but] you can’t just say, ‘I ain’t going to never win a Super Bowl in Dallas’ as if you were not on the football field… you are directly part of the reason you didn’t win a Super Bowl in Dallas,” he said.
Irvin believes Lawrence’s persistent injury issues and lack of production (when healthy) following his five-year, $105 million extension in 2019 were problematic. To Irvin, whether Lawrence was sidelined or on the field, Dak Prescott and Co. were putting up points. He attributed the Cowboys’ inability to make a deep playoff run to the defense.
“Dallas had the number one offense… the problem was that defense, that, what I call, ‘Oprah Winfrey’ defense. ‘You rush for 200 [yards], you rush for 200 [yards]… everybody rush for 200 [yards]’… I put the onus on [DeMarcus Lawrence]. What are you talking about?”
Parsons, obviously, is also on that unit. But since entering the league in 2021, he has played in 18 more games and recorded 36.5 more sacks than Lawrence. Those differences give Parsons a lot more leeway for overall team shortcomings.
Irvin waxed on poetically for roughly three minutes about siding with Parsons over Lawrence. By the time he was finished, Taylor had flipped sides. She was originally backing Lawrence in last week’s discussion but now thinks Parsons was in the right.
“[Lawrence] should have said… ‘we didn’t win a Super Bowl,’ because… you participated in the non-winning of Super Bowls.” – Joy Taylor
Lawrence’s comments admittedly reek of a scorned lover’s attitude. He was once Dallas’ franchise defensive line piece. But as his production waned, Parsons came in and stole his thunder. Parsons became everyone’s favorite new sack artist overnight. This left Lawrence holding the proverbial – but lucrative – bag.
Lawrence has not moved to greener pastures but to greener Pacific Northwestern forests. There probably was no need for him to talk trash about his old stomping grounds. But he couldn’t resist joining the Cowboys’ caravan of critics now that he’s not the one under fire. It’s too bad we don’t have a Seahawks-Cowboys matchup in 2025 to settle things.
