I’ve long been a huge fan of the HBO series “Hard Knocks” since its premiere in 2001. Outside of the expected silliness ranging from former Jets’ HC Rex Ryan’s “let’s get a snack” quote to Vince Wilfork’s “naked overalls” episode with the Texans, the show always does a fantastic job of hyping me up for the NFL season. So when the Cowboys were chosen for this year’s series, I mildly cringed at the idiocy that was inbound. And, spoiler alert, Mike McCarthy delivers in droves via an Austin Powers movie clip and fake bravado that brought on a mild panic attack. Yes, it’s insulting to the viewer but even more so to Mike Meyers who’s probably on the line with Jerry Jones negotiating compensation as I write this.
The beauty of “Hard Knocks” is that it also fuels preseason hype on fantasy assets and drives up (or down) their values to the point where you can sometimes use the show as leverage to buy (or sell) in Dynasty, Redraft, or other formats. And as I settled in expecting little in the way of discovering 2021’s fantasy sleeper for Dallas, I did find that one player stood out above the rest. I’m not talking about Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott who are clearly HBO’s favorite sons. We also see brief flashes from second-year budding superstar CeeDee Lamb, but he’s not the guy (yet at least). No sign of Amari Cooper who was on the PUP when shooting commenced. The stand-out player was, in fact, not on the offensive side of the ball at all.
When Dallas took Micah Parsons, a linebacker out of Penn State, 12th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, I was pretty stoked. After the tire fire disaster that was Dallas’ defense last season, Jerry went out and hired Dan Quinn to take the helm and redesign the scheme back to 4-3 from the 3-4 nonsense installed previously under Rod Marinelli.
Parsons looks every bit the part right out of the gate and the premiere episode does an amazing job highlighting the youngster’s talent. His speed sideline-to-sideline looks tremendous. He’s identifying coverages immediately. And most surprising, he’s already the defensive play-caller on the field. Whether this continues remains to be seen, but the early indication that the team is willing to levy heavy responsibilities already on Micah is a sign of confidence given that Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch both have tenure on the rookie.
IDP is not my specialty so the actionable nature of this soft analysis is “take it or leave it”, but from the Hall of Fame Game vs. Pittsburgh last week blended with what we saw during Tuesday night’s premiere leads me to believe that Micah Parsons is someone poised to make an immediate impact on the NFL field and more importantly in your IDP lineups. Look for him to straight-up make plays at the inside LB position and be a difference-maker in fantasy lineups. He has the early hype train-makings to become the first LB since Indy’s Darius Leonard in 2018 to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors if he can outperform another Colt this season, EDGE Rusher Kwity Paye.
According to DFF Rankings, Parsons’ current Dynasty ADP is IDP32/LB11. I’d expect that to improve as the series goes along but based on what I know in the Dynasty field, I’d be comfortable reaching for him at that price in startups. Disclaimer: this is based purely on offseason hype, draft capital, and the fact the Cowboys’ defense is atrocious. It also takes the “eyeball test” into consideration which, for me at least, is enough to take the shot. Trade for Parsons now before the “Hard Knocks” hype elevates him to a top LB in fantasy football.
Thank you for reading. I don’t usually write articles or provide analysis. In fact, as Editor in Chief, I’m purely back of the house. But follow me anyway at DFF_MR and maybe I’ll drop a gem from time to time. Good luck this season!
