The animosity between the Cowboys and linebacker Micah Parson lingers, nearly two months to the day after Dallas traded him to Green Bay.
The latest flash point relates to Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, who was placed on injured reserve over the weekend.
“Honestly, I feel like they fucked my dog over, you know what I mean?” Parsons told Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports after Sunday night’s win over the Steelers. “He’s coming off a catastrophic knee injury and I just didn’t think they did right by him. He didn’t participate all camp and he’s going out there playing Week 1 and 2. I just don’t think you do that to a player like that. . . .
“And the type of knee injury he had, they forced him out there. He has no reps really. He’s telling me he was in warmup phase during Week 1. Even with the ramp-up, I just feel like you just don’t do that.”
Diggs suffered a concussion at home before the Week 7 win over the Commanders. He missed that game before landing on IR before Week 8.
“I just feel like they screwed him over,” Parsons said. “The organization let him down. You know what I mean? You just don’t do that to a player. And I just think it was mad wrong and I just pray for him.”
The Cowboys declined to respond to Parsons, via Epstein. Diggs’s contract is not guaranteed beyond 2025; he has a $14.5 million base salary in 2026.
Coming off what Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans called “one of his best games,” C.J. Stroud received good news to start Week 9.
Injuries are unfortunate, and the Texans are no stranger to enduring their own losses. Still, the recent news coming from the Denver Broncos before their visit to face Stroud and the Texans bodes well for the third-year QB.
Stroud must still take advantage of the situation.
Broncos star cornerback Pat Surtain II – an All-Pro, a Pro Bowler, and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year – will miss facing Stroud and the Texans due to a pectoral strain incurred in Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys.
The exact severity of the injury is unclear, though he could land on injured reserve, and Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz reported Surtain is “expected to miss 4–6 weeks.”
Week 9 is all that matters for Stroud and the Texans.
Stroud threw for a season-high 319 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception on 76.9% completion against the 49ers in Week 8. He has a 1,623-11-5 line on 66.8% completion this season, and his job in Week 9 presumably got much easier.
The Broncos are 6-2, have won five straight games, and boast the NFL’s top pass rush with 36 sacks and are fifth in scoring.
Stroud made a point to cite spreading the ball around and getting it out of his hands as keys to his success against the San Francisco 49ers. On paper, the Broncos present a rather intimidating challenge.
They are allowing a league-low 56.8% completion in pass coverage.
Broncos cornerback Riley Moss is the most targeted defender in the league, and he has the lowest completion percentage allowed of any defender targeted at least 40 times in coverage at 45.3%, per Pro Football Focus.
However, nickelback Ja’Quan McMillian (69% on 20 targets) and second-year fifth-round selection Kris Abrams-Draine (100% on five targets) could prove vulnerable.
The Broncos do have Jahdae Barron, the 20th overall selection in the 2025 draft.
He has allowed six receptions on 12 targets this season and recorded his first career interception in Week 8 against the Cowboys. If Barron draws the start or plays more than Abrams-Draine, Stroud and the Texans could still have options elsewhere against the Broncos.
Moreover, Stroud and the Texans could do more than benefit from a subtraction by the Broncos.
Stroud was without his top two wide receivers against the 49ers, with Christian Kirk sidelined with a hamstring injury and Nico Collins in concussion protocol.
Ryans offered little in his day-after media availability.
However, there was encouraging news, with KPRC 2’s Aaron Wilson reporting in a post on X on October 27 – after Ryans’ comments – that, “Collins, per source, is doing well and trending toward return at this point.”
That Stroud performed as he did without Collins should bode well for the Texans when the 2024 Pro Bowler returns to the field.
If that is Week 9, it is even more encouraging for Stroud and the Texans than Surtain’s absence.
