Cowboys' Matt Eberflus Gives First Comments on Losing Micah Parsons in Trade to Packers

The Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to the Packers last week, a transaction that still feels hard to believe. Yet in less than one week the NFL world will be treated to its first sight of Parsons in Green Bay yellow— as well as a Dallas defense missing the All-Pro pass rusher for the first time in four seasons.

The man responsible for coping with that loss (and the addition of Kenny Clark, the defensive tackle acquired in the Parsons trade) is Matt Eberflus, who was hired by Brian Schottenheimer this offseason to oversee the defense. The defensive coordinator spoke to the media about losing Parsons via trade for the first time on Monday and didn't waste his breath bemoaning the sudden drain of All-Pro talent at the edge position.

"Congratulations to Micah," Eberflus said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. "We wish him the best. We’re gonna focus on us. Obviously really good player. We have a lot of good rushers in the D-line room. Certainly we’ll generate with that and other things too."

An admirable attitude, and also the only stance Eberflus can take. Regardless of how many times Jerry Jones might harp on the improvement of the run defense Clark could bring the defense is undoubtedly worse off without Parsons. He's too talented and productive to believe otherwise. Eberflus could still mitigate the loss with coaching and creative schemes, as he implies with the last sentence, but stopping the opposing offense is a lot harder now than it was two weeks ago.

A big year ahead for Eberflus and the rest of the defense as Parsons continues his career elsewhere.