Mac Engel: DeMarcus Ware on Micah Parsons: 'He has to shine every week & sometimes he doesn't'

Gone is the naive kid and in that place is a man who looks and sounds like a man who is firmly aware of his surroundings, situation, and exactly the throne on which he sits. And Micah Parsons still doesn’t quite get it.

Maybe because every single field he has walked on since he was 2 he was not just a lion but rather a rhinoceros combined with a cheetah. As good as the Dallas Cowboys’ fourth-year defensive lineman/linebacker is, there is still more in there.

If anyone understands this development, expectation and evolution it’s a player who once stood exactly where Parsons is today, Pro Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware.

“When they are winning games, (he) is the reason they are winning games,” Ware said in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. “He is the catalyst that gets everybody going. That potential he has, the sky is the limit for him.

“Going back to the last game (Week 1 at Cleveland), like, how they are using him. Put him at linebacker or defensive end. He’s one of those athletic guys no matter where they put him at, you have to tag him for what he can do. That is be disruptive.

“You can see from that first sack, an interception happens, a kickoff is run back, (defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence) gets a sack. It’s a trickle effect. (Parsons) is the light of the Dallas Cowboys but he has to shine every single week and sometimes he doesn’t. That’s me, going on from what I see; if he lights it up every week they win football games.”

Before anyone perceives this as a rip on Parsons, and aggregators parse his thoughts, Ware has been right there. This is not some variation of a “call out.” He sees a great talent who has not just the keys to a Ferrari, his team, but the whole league.

Ware is 42, and he looks like he can play today even though his last season was in 2016. Much like his playing career is worthy of emulation, his post-playing career might be more impressive. He’s not one of these sad cases who had it all only to blow it.

He used his fame from his playing days to launch himself into the realm of endorsements, public appearances, etc.

Ware will be at the Cowboys’ home season opener on Sunday at noon at AT&T Stadium against the New Orleans Saints. You can find him at the “Crown Royal Royal Rig,” an 18-wheeler that is touring NFL stadiums with a giant tailgate that benefits military charity organizations.

During this interview, Parsons was a topic of conversation because he is entering prime years of potentially a Hall of Fame career. He is on schedule for a contract extension, and that means he will be the highest paid defensive player in the NFL.

“I see a guy that hasn’t unlocked his full potential yet. When you look at how he is playing, it’s, like, ‘Holdup, how does he get better?’’’ Ware said.

A legit rhetorical question. How does Parsons really get better?

“He can get better by adding more pressure, more disruptive but in key situations,” Ware said. “When the commentators are saying, ‘It’s third-and-10, Micah Parsons.’ When they call your name on television, it’s almost like Micah has to feel like they are talking to him and he has to make that play.”

For any player who piles up numbers, when they happen matters.

A quarterback pressure and a few sacks in the second half of a blowout is Stat Padding 101. Those look great during a contract negotiation. Ware is talking about plays that change an entire game, and potentially a season.

“I go back to when I played; I knew in a passing situation I needed to be disruptive,” Ware said. “I may not make the play, but I had to by the football. I want Micah Parsons by the football. That’s by moving him around, like (former Cowboys head coaches Bill Parcells and Wade Phillips) did with me. They are doing that now with him.”

Parsons’ off-the-field schedule has also been a point of debate/concern. The concern is if he’s really working at it, or relying a long list of enviable God-given gifts that he takes for granted. What no one wants to see is a player who is this good, who could have been better only to regret it later.

The player Parsons is most often compared to is not Ware. Parsons normally is compared to the greatest defensive player who ever lived, New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. LT was a freak who didn’t need to study for the exam in order to get an A +++. He was a football savant.

He was also a mess. He struggled with substance abuse, and now in his 60s he owns all of it. Despite a nonchalant approach to any part of preparation, he ruined opposing offenses.

“I say to myself, ‘Look at what you have achieved; could you have done it better?’” Taylor said on an appearance on the podcast ‘All The Smoke” hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “If I had gone home every day. If I had gone to the gym every day. If I didn’t drink Johnny Walker Black every day. Could I have been better?

“I don’t know. I know a bunch of guys that don’t drink, don’t smoke, and they were straight trash!”

He said the last sentence clause, but the point is unmistakable; could Lawrence Taylor have been even better had he not been party maven?

Nothing Parsons has done suggests he has even an iota of any of the off-the-field problems that chased LT. What Parsons has done is to create an impression that his preparation isn’t what it could be, and he’s missing out on making even more plays than he already does.

That’s why DeMarcus Ware said he sees a guy who has “not unlocked his full potential yet.”

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