Micah Parsons named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year

Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons was named the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year on Thursday night in Los Angeles. In the process, he became the first player in franchise history to win Defensive Player of the Year, with the Cowboys’ only other Rookie of the Year winners — Calvin Hill (1969), Tony Dorsett (1977), Emmitt Smith (1990) and Ezekiel Elliott (2016) — winning it on the offensive side of the ball.

Parsons, 22, played college football at Penn State and was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, as the Cowboys used the 12th-overall selection, and Parsons emerged into an immediate star. He first made a huge impact in the Cowboys’ season-opening loss to the Buccaneers; while the Cowboys lost, 31-29, Parsons amassed seven total tackles (three solo stops) in his first NFL game, along with half a sack. Parsons finished the season with 64 total tackles, 13 sacks, which ranked sixth in the NFL and three forced fumbles.

Parsons was named to the Pro Bowl in his first NFL season, a big accomplishment in its own right, but he took it a step further on Thursday by taking home the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award, too.

The Cowboys frequently lined him up at both linebacker and on the edge, and the results were consistently dominant. Given his performance in all facets of the defense, Parsons has had his eyes set on more than just winning the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award for quite some time.

Parsons said weeks ago that if he were to only play edge rusher, he’d be an 18-20 sack player. Further, with his current production alone, he said he believes he should be in the conversation for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Parsons, a native of Harrisburg, PA, was a five-star recruit according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. That five-star rating made him the No. 5 overall prospect in the 2018 recruiting class, as well as the No. 1 linebacker in the class and No. 1 recruit out of the state of Pennsylvania. He opted to stay local for college, committing to James Franklin at Penn State, and had a terrific two-year career with the Nittany Lions, ultimately forgoing his third season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parsons finished in just two years at Penn State tied for seventh in program history with six forced fumbles and tied for fifth in Nittany Lions’ history with four forced fumbles. Additionally, he had 192 tackles (100 solo stops), 19.0 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and five passes defended in two seasons.