DAL still needs defensive help after Parsons trade
Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss Donovan Ezeiruaku's recent hip surgery and explain why the Dallas Cowboys' pass rush is still lacking after trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.
Video Transcript
Cowboys defensive end Donovan Esarku underwent hip surgery five weeks ago, that emerged recently, repairing a torn labrum, out until training camp.
And the defense is obviously one of the concerns with the Cowboys.
They need good players.
They need their good players to be healthy.
That is the biggest flaw on that team.
They are skewed too much toward offense, and it's clear that Jerry Jones wants to bolster the defense this off-season.
Yeah, they have to.
That The, I mean, the offense, you don't need anything on the offense.
You, you said it, right?
They're perfect.
O-line's damn good.
I mean, maybe they wanna get another running back in the fold, sure, but damn, receivers, they're good.
So it's all about the defense.
And it's, it's I know we're gonna do NFC East team needs here in a minute, but this kinda just leads it into it organically.
the Cowboys need a pass rusher.
They need a pass rusher, and this is a big blow to their team because Esarku was one of the young budding stars of their team at the end of the year last year.
He was starting to show like, hey, he looks like he can be a pretty good pass rusher here.
Now, to deal with a hip injury, too?
Like, yeah, hip injury, torn labrum.
Okay, he'll be ready for training camp.
He's not gonna be 100%.
I mean, think about that.
"Hey, my hip, I just had it repaired.
Now I'm gonna run around the edge with 340-pound men pushing on me."
You think that hip's gonna be able to be totally ex- his explosive self?
Absolutely not.
So that's where you wonder, and that's where you put the Cowboys a little bit on that short list of teams where, with the picks they have, would they go after Max Crosby here?
They would certainly be one of the teams I'd be looking for in that, that conversation.
But yeah, that's a, that's a tough one there.
This, you know, few weeks into the off-season to just be getting surgery now, and I would think this is gonna affect him into the season.
Yeah.
Put a pin in the Max Crosby conversation.
We've got some, some odds for his next team coming up.
We'll do that in the next segment.
Okay.
I just think defense generally, but obviously the pass rush, that's the most important aspect to the defense, as they learned last year.
When And it, it really is amazing to me, and I guess it is a sign of the times, that even when you fail, if you bullshit enough, you can convince people, including yourself, that you succeeded.
Like, the Micah Parsons trade was a failure for the Cowboys, but Jerry Jones has convinced himself he won, and he's managed to convince others that he's won.
And I think back to what Jason Garrett told us as this was happening, when he gave us the patented, "Are you kidding me?"
and, "What are we doing here?"
in probably the same breath, because there's a reason that the defensive backs looked as good as- Yeah they did.
Right.
When the quarterback doesn't have time to, to do anything other than run for his life and get rid of the ball, it makes it a lot easier for Quan, why am I Trevon Diggs.
Yes.
And, uh- DaRon Bland Bland.
Yes.
DaRon Bland.
It makes it so much easier for them to sit there, watch, you know, watch the quarterback, and wait for the quarterback to panic and throw them the ball.
When you don't have that element, now you gotta cover the receivers .
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now it's a different world- Yeah for Diggs and Bland.
And, and so it really is, 'cause we were having this I'm, I, I mean, I r- I, I It's amazing to me that Jerry Jones has managed to convince himself that he won that trade.
He didn't win that trade.
No.
They needed to keep Micah Parsons.
I, I, I mean, yeah.
It was a ma- a, a colossal failure by the Cowboys to not keep Micah Parsons, and I'm not gonna let him act like he won that trade.
Yeah.
He lost that trade.
Agreed.
And, and, and bumbled and fumbled and, and screwed up the whole situation, and tried to put, you know, toothpicks back in the bottle and all that crap with saying, "Oh, this was our plan all along" and- Or the genie back in the bottle oh, you know, all of them, whatever the hell they are.
Either way, he needed to cram something in to cram to something because his bullshit wasn't flying, I know that.
And yeah, that, you know, so, yeah, they totally messed up that situation.
We know that.
And as it looks right now, ding, ding, ding, you are correct, they have not won that trade.
I mean, Kenny Co- Kenny Clark was barely It, it He didn't start in some games towards the end of the year last year, so that didn't work out.
they, they got the, the linebacker from the Cincinnati Bengals.
He's already off the team.
Well, okay.
Logan Wilson.
Boop.
So gone.
So there, there's your, there's your trade pieces there.
Quinnen Williams, they did get that.
Now that's, that was a win.
Quinnen Williams is still a damn good football player.
But as of right now, as we sit here, that's all you can talk about really, d- that you got that's really beneficial for your football team is Quinnen Williams or Micah Parsons.
Now they have these draft picks, and that's what they're gonna be judged on here too.
What can they do with these draft picks that they gave away for Micah Parsons and make that work?
But yeah, I'm with you.
They did not win that.
You're totally right.
It's defense all the way, pass rusher, and probably secondary guys second after that as far as what the Cowboys need.
The fact that the notoriously draft and develop Packers did not hesitate to send multiple first-round picks and pay Micah Parsons 47 million per year tells you how badly the Cowboys screwed it up.
'Cause they could've gotten Micah for a lot less than 47 million per year without giving up a single draft pick- Agreed to keep him.
Agreed.
It really is amazing.
Yes, it is.
It really is amazing how badly they screwed it up, and it's amazing that Jerry Jones has managed to convince himself, if he truly has, that he won that trade
