“I’m a huge fan of his. I hope I can get his jersey in my man cave one day.”
Parsons is certainly off to the same explosive start – having earned a Pro Bowl nod, Defensive Rookie of the Year honor and First-Team All-Pro label in his first season while also being a frontrunner alongside Donald in the race for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
That honor went to Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt and, as such, Parsons has put it out of his mind and began the task of trying to improve upon last season.
“It doesn’t matter how many votes we got,” said Parsons. “We both lost. So what’s to celebrate? Being a second-place loser?”
Well, needless to say, neither Parsons nor Donald could ever be described as such, and particularly with Donald landing the walk-off sack that helped secure the Lombardi Trophy for the Rams in their Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in February.
Parsons and Donald again find themselves in the forefront of the conversation for 2022, though, but the former is doing it with a mix of hard work and gleaning as much intel as he can from other legendary pass rushers like DeMarcus Ware and Hall of Famer Charles Haley, admittedly staying away from watching Donald’s film as a teaching tool.
And for a very specific reason.
“I can’t study him because I can’t do what he does,” said Parsons. “He’s just so fundamental – can go from speed to power and then power to speed. He has great hands and he’s doing all of this at almost 300 pounds.
“I mean, golly, what do you do? He’s terrorized the league for so long.”
Cooper Rush agrees wholeheartedly with Parsons’ assessment, and that’s why the quarterback says job numero uno for the Cowboys offensive line – led by future Hall of Fame right guard Zack Martin – is to first locate Donald on the field and then execute the play from there.
