FRISCO, Texas — Cowboys All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons appeared to be following the traditional “hold-in” playbook at the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday amid his on-going contract talks with Dallas. He stretched off to the side that day and wore a beanie all practice, opting to stand by his fellow defensive line teammates but not physically participate. The 26-year-old four-time Pro Bowler blamed some “back soreness” from training with cornerback Trevon Diggs on Monday as the reason why he didn’t participate Tuesday.
“It’s just been kicking me in the butt you know,” Parsons said of his back. “[Diggs] brings it out of me every time, so it’s going to be fun to keep training with him. I miss that guy.”
However, Parsons surprisingly put his body on the line, ever so lightly, on Wednesday, Dallas’ second day of mandatory minicamp. After stretching off to the side in a beanie once again to start the day, he joined defensive line position drills, working on his hand technique to punch and disengage from offensive linemen. He took reps alongside 2025 second-round pick Donovan Ezeiruaku and 2022 second-round pick Sam Williams and didn’t exhibit any signs of rust.
After that initial drill, he went back to being Coach Parsons by taking over ball-on-the-stick duties and snapping the ball to get his teammates started in a line of scrimmage drill.
“Just being vocal and understanding what looks right,” Parsons said Tuesday of his role as a sounding board. “They’re going through the drills and guys ask me, ‘How do I look?’ The simple things. ‘Well, how’s my footwork?’ It’s not always the major things that make football great. It’s always the small details, the footwork, the positioning, the angles, things like that. I think I can contribute, and we’ll go in and we’ll watch film together, and I could tell guys what I see from a vivid experience about going through a lot.”
Parsons then proceeded to put the helmet back on to work on his bend coming off the edge, keeping it low to the ground during that position drill. He hopped in once the coaches moved the hoop to the left side of the line scrimmage, his preferred rush spot because it allows him to utilize his right hand. Parsons’ on-field production backs up that preference: he has a 25.7% pass rush win rate on 327 rushes from the left side and a 21.4% pass rush win rate on 309 rushes from the right side since 2022, per Pro Football Focus.
Parsons was just as explosive after practice, too. The post-practice ping pong sessions in the Cowboys’ locker room bring out the trash-talking side of most players, but that’s especially true for Parsons. He took on seventh-round rookie defensive tackle Jay Toia out of UCLA, and the action heated up in a hurry. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer stayed in the locker room to watch, and their match had all the players’ attention.
Toia jumped out to an early 6-3 lead in a game to 11, which led to Parsons calling a timeout. That got the whole locker room hollering that one can’t call timeouts in ping pong. Parsons declared that he was “public enemy No. 1” with seemingly every player except Diggs vocally supporting Toia. He then rallied back to get the victory, which led to him and Diggs shouting “7-Eleven” after the victory. There was also some arguing about people taking turns using a supposedly higher quality ping pong paddle. They ended with Parsons somewhat joking about buying everyone $70 ping pong paddles.
The camaraderie Schottenheimer sought to build by moving the ping pong table into the locker room is naturally occurring, something that made the Cowboys head coach sport a wry grin as he stood back and quietly observed.
“They’re getting to it. We’ve got some guys, so I mean the U.S. Olympic team is looking not only for flag football players. We got some ping pong aspirants in here. It’s good stuff,” Cowboys left guard Tyler Smith said Wednesday. “[Parsons] will compete in anything. That’s really just him. That’s literally no exaggeration. Paddle pall, ping pong, wall ball, whatever. He just comes to compete, and he’s passionate about it. So that’s definitely his vibe over there for sure.”
Here’s a look at a few other takeaways from the Cowboys’ first two days of mandatory minicamp.
Predicting contracts, trades for Cowboys’ Micah Parsons, six other major NFL players in minicamp situations
Cody Benjamin
New Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is starting to pop at mandatory minicamp. On Tuesday, he caught passes in the left flat and big plays deep down both sidelines. Pickens caught five passes in total on Tuesday, plus a two-point conversion in the back left corner of the end zone on Wednesday.
“Oh yeah, it’s getting better and better every time. Learning the plays, the more I’m here and then get the minutia of how he [Prescott] wants to run this place. So yeah, we’re connected for sure,” Pickens said Wednesday. “The more I get up to speed, we’re [he and Lamb] going to have a lot more of those moments, too..
He’s enjoyed the regular use of motions and cut splits Schottenheimer has installed early on, which he credited for starting to produce more consistently this week.
“A lot of motions,” Pickens said. “A lot of things that you get an indicator on what the defense is doing before you say hike. Some coaches don’t do that.”
Pickens produced outstanding deep receiving numbers in Pittsburgh, averaging 16.7 yards per reception across the last two seasons, a figure that leads the entire NFL among 61 players with at least 110 catches since 2023. Now, the 24-year-old is looking to be more than just a deep threat, working more on his intermediate route running over the middle throughout Dallas’ offseason program.
“Just trying to catch every pass. I kind of embrace myself and hone in on that when I’m on the field. Whether that’s a slant, the last couple of years it’s been go balls, so that’s why I led the category in that, but just definitely trying to catch every pass,” Pickens said on his introductory conference call on May 8.
“A different scheme could allow me to do more,” Pickens said Wednesday.
Playing alongside CeeDee Lamb will likely also allow Pickens to do more with defenses no longer keyed into his every move like they were when he was a Steeler and his squad’s obvious No. 1 option in the passing game.
“I played [with] a lot of other receivers, but he plays a little more of everything, so it affects more stuff … in a good way,” Pickens said. “A lot of guys can’t do that. A lot of number one guys just kind of play what the coaches got them playing, but he plays everything. … The more I get integrated with playing everything and knowing everything kind of like Cee does, it’s going to be better. … We help each other every day.”
In 2023, then-second year tight end Jake Ferguson broke out for the sole Pro Bowl appearance of his career — catching 71 passes for 761 yards and five touchdowns on 102 targets — but his 2024 was much more rocky with injuries to both he and quarterback Dak Prescott. Ferguson tweaked his knee in Week 1 at the Cleveland Browns and suffered a concussion in Week 11 against the Houston Texans. Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring tear in Week 9 at the Atlanta Falcons. That led to Ferguson totaling just 59 catches for 494 yards receiving and no touchdowns on 86 targets.
“My knee hurt for sure,” Ferguson said Wednesday. “The concussion was weird, but I’ve said this before: If I’m out on the field, I should be able to give it my all. So I definitely wasn’t satisfied with how I played the whole year last year. I don’t think I’ve ever played a full season and not scored a touchdown, so that was something I came into this offseason really working on.”
Entering a contract year in 2025, Ferguson is looking to regain his footing as a reliable over-the-middle and red zone threat for Prescott. Their chemistry flashed on a touchdown toss on a seam throw during a red zone passing drill on Wednesday. Ferguson beat new Dallas linebacker Jack Sanborn on the play despite tight coverage.
“That’s been going back since I got here. I love the seam ball, he loves throwing it,” Ferguson said. “We just happened to have that play called today, but we’ve been repping that daily, routes on air, stuff like that. That’s been a connection that’s been building continuously.”
Quick hits
- New Cowboys cornerback Kaiir Elam remains consistent, racking up at least one pass break up every time the media is allowed to observe practice.
- Backup quarterback Joe Milton III showcased both his potential and his need to polish up a few things. He airmailed a throw toward the middle of the end zone with a little too much velocity early. Then he battled back to throw a dart to the middle of the end zone to wide receiver Ryan Flournoy, hitting him right in between the numbers for a touchdown of around 20 to 25 yards.
- Second-year linebacker Marist Liufau did a good job generating quarterback pressures on a handful of plays.
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Author: Garrett Podell
June 11, 2025 | 8:05 pm
