SANTA CLARA — Micah Parsons finished second behind Nick Bosa last season for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
This year, Parsons is the betting favorite for the honor.
Parsons creates the biggest challenge for the 49ers on Sunday night when the Dallas Cowboys come to Levi’s Stadium for a high-profile matchup between two of the best teams in the league.
Bosa will be on the sideline when Parsons is on the field, but he knows a lot about the Cowboys’ best player by studying his video.
“He’s very comfortable all over the line,” Bosa said of Parsons, who has four sacks in the first four games of the 2023 NFL season.
“He’s obviously more athletically gifted than anyone else — him and maybe Myles Garrett. But just the acceleration. Plays he shouldn’t be making, he’s making them. And (he plays) with good effort.”
Parsons recorded nine quarterback pressures in Week 4 against the New England Patriots, according to Zebra Technology’s on-field tracking.
It was Parsons’ eighth straight game with at least five pressures. He leads the NFL in nearly every pass rush metric, including pressures (29th) and pressure rate (27.4%).
Veteran linebacker Anthony Brown, who started 69 of the 94 regular season games he appeared in for the Cowboys over seven seasons, is now in his third week on the 49ers’ practice squad.
Brown experienced the luxury of playing in a defense that included Parsons. A first-round pick in 2021, Parsons has 30 sacks in 37 regular-season games.
“He’s basically like Nick Bosa here,” Brown said. “He gets forward and makes the ball come out quicker for the DBs on the back end.”
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