{"id":31814,"date":"2025-09-03T11:50:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=31814"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:50:20","slug":"breaking-news-the-top-candidates-to-fill-void-of-elite-cowboys-defenders-after-parsons-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=31814","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS : The top candidates to fill void of elite Cowboys defenders after Parsons trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cowboyswire.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/images\/smg\/2025\/02\/19\/SCOW\/79254326007-73-707673.jpeg?crop=6150,3460,x0,y320&amp;width=660&amp;height=371&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"CB possible, but Cowboys must wait for Overshown to fill Parsons shoes\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"block-20896aa6-4abc-43e6-85d3-f048ecda3b58\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The drama with the\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0and pass rusher Micah Parsons is now in the rearview, and there&#8217;s a regular season to prepare for, starting with the\u00a0Philadelphia Eagles\u00a0on Thursday night. With Parsons no longer in the fold, the defense needs new leadership, but more importantly, it needs a new best player.<\/p>\n<p id=\"block-e2322a03-ace3-4e48-a36d-dd358ee1dae4\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Leadership might be easier to come by. The\u00a0Cowboys\u00a0have several veterans who can lead, and when the team captains were announced, it was defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa and safety Donovan Wilson who were awarded the honor. Those are two guys who immediately go to the top of the list to direct the defense.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cowboys?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Cowboys<\/a> captains:<\/p>\n<p>DT Osa Odighizuwa<br \/>S Donovan Wilson<br \/>QB Dak Prescott<br \/>WR CeeDee Lamb<br \/>K Brandon Aubrey<br \/>CB C.J. Goodwin<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NickHarrisFWST\/status\/1962207557310632046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Other players who could also be the voices of the unit include safety Malik Hooker and new DT Kenny Clark, who was revered for his leadership with the\u00a0Green Bay Packers. It could take some time with his new team, but there&#8217;s little doubt about Clark&#8217;s ability to be a high character member of the defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The real question is who is the elite player on Dallas&#8217; defense? The Cowboys have plenty of firepower on offense, but their only real big-time player on defense is now gone. Parsons was a three-time All-Pro who offenses had to gameplan around; he was a game wrecker, and there isn&#8217;t another member of the defense who has that ability. There are no other players who can be mentioned as being among the league&#8217;s best at their positions currently. No one on the Cowboys&#8217; defense scares offenses anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Clark has three Pro Bowls to his name, while cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland have had All-Pro seasons as well, but neither have been consistent and\u00a0Diggs is returning from two serious knee injuries\u00a0in back-to-back seasons. Those are the obvious candidates with the accolades to back up any claim to being elite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>usatoday.com wants to ensure the best experience for all of our readers, so we built our site to take advantage of the latest technology, making it faster and easier to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dallas-cowboys"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING NEWS : The top candidates to fill void of elite Cowboys defenders after Parsons trade - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=31814\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS : The top candidates to fill void of elite Cowboys defenders after Parsons trade - 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