The Dallas Cowboys are looking for new leaders to save them from disarray. One of their former leaders thinks he has solutions.
Former Dallas linebacker and Hall of Famer Demarcus Ware told PK Press Club Digital he may consider joining the Cowboys’ next coaching staff under one specific condition. He wants his former teammate Jason Witten to be the team’s head coach.
“I’m vouching for him right now to be the head coach, he could vouch for me to come in and kind of be a defensive coach,” Ware said in an exclusive interview. “There’s a 94 percent chance that if Jason Witten becomes head coach, Demarcus will be very interested in coming there as well.”
Witten has been a head coach at the high school level since 2021, when he took over Liberty Christian High School in Argyle, Texas. Witten reportedly turned down several assistant coaching positions at NFL and college programs to accept the Liberty Christian job, according to ESPN.
During that time, Ware served as a pass-rush consultant on the Denver Broncos coaching staff in 2018.
If Ware were to join a hypothetical coaching staff led by Witten, Ware says he would prioritize managing current star linebacker Micah Parsons. Ware says the Cowboys defense hasn’t had the “lightning” from Parsons it needs to compete for a Super Bowl.
“If he can become consistent on the field and play like he’s been playing at the beginning of the season, he’s like the electricity the team needs to wake up,” Ware said. “If we can get him playing regularly in defense, they will win more football games and take the pressure off. [quarterback] Dak Prescott.”
If a team led by Witten and Ware materializes, Ware suggests Parsons won’t podcast every week during the NFL season, as Parsons has done since the start of the 2023 season when “The Edge With Micah Parsons” was released. launched on Bleacher. Report.
“He probably won’t do it during the season, I know he won’t,” Ware said. “Because he will be too focused on the quarterback and wreak havoc in the backfield.”
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Micah Parsons #11 of the Dallas Cowboys before a preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on August 11, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Ware says having a weekly podcast during the season isn’t something he would have done in his career, especially early on. Ware believes it’s a “difficult” balancing act for Parsons.
“It’s very difficult,” Ware said of Parsons’ overlapping football and media obligations. “There are some things you probably can’t say and questions you’ll be asked to push you into doing press.”
During a November 2023 episode of Parsons’ podcast, following a game against the Carolina Panthers in which he vomited on the sidelines, Parsons revealed that his teammates had pressured him to overdose on C4 Energy powder before the match, which caused him chest pain. and possibly nausea. He ended the story by suggesting he gave in to “peer pressure.”
In a September episode of that year, while discussing Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship, Parsons encouraged other NFL players to pursue relationships with high-profile famous women and specifically named Zendaya as someone they should pursue. He said this despite the fact that Zendaya has been in a long-term relationship with Spider-Man actor Tom Holland since 2021.
Parsons has since faced pushback from his own teammate regarding his decision to create a podcast during the season. This criticism came during a separate podcast appearance from Cowboys safety Malik Hooker.
“My advice would be to Micah, it would be: Just make sure everything is okay and we’re where your feet are,” Hooker said in a June 27 interview on the “All Facts No Brakes” podcast. “Because if we’re working and the running game is terrible, but you’re doing a podcast every week — and you know the running game is terrible — then what do you really care about? Do you care about the crowd watching your podcast, or do you care about our team’s success and the Super Bowl we’re trying to get to?”
When Parsons was pressed by reporters about the distraction his podcast might pose during training camp on Aug. 21, the star passer became passionately defensive.
“I don’t think anyone really cares what I do on Monday afternoons when I’m home with my kids,” he said. “So why would they care if I’m on Xbox? I think we all have our own free time. When you’re away from here, do you all think of me at home? I hope not.
“I try not to say anything controversial, but everyone is always going to be drawn to something. They’re going to try to take one thing. We all have opinions. We’re not going to agree with what everyone world says. It’s life.
Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, left, greets Tom Brady, right, on the field during warmups before the team’s NFL preseason football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday August 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Hodde)
Parsons suffered his worst season as a professional in the months that followed. He reached a career-low with 12 sacks, 43 tackles and 23 QB hits, while playing in a career-low 13 games. He missed games with injury for the first time in his NFL career. The team had its worst season since joining in 2021, finishing with a 7-10 record, leading to the departure of head coach Mike McCarthy.
Parsons now enters the offseason, preparing for a coaching change for his first time as a professional. He’s also seeking a contract extension that some experts say could surpass the largest for a defensive player in league history. This record is currently held by San Francisco 49ers star Nick Bosa, who signed a five-year, $170 million contract in 2023.
Parsons’ current salary at Bleacher Report is currently unknown. Whatever the amount, it complements an NFL base salary of just $2.2 million in 2023 and $2.9 million in 2024. However, that figure will increase to $24 million in 2025 in the part of the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. He will then become a free agent and could be paid well beyond that figure.
If Ware ends up on the Cowboys coaching staff, Parsons may have to sacrifice his Bleacher Report salary while his NFL base salary increases.
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Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker Micah Parsons (11) celebrates in front of Washington Football Team running back Antonio Gibson (24) after sacking quarterback Taylor Heinicke (4) in the first half of a game NFL football in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, December 26. , 2021. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman)
Still, Ware suggests he would have no problem with Parsons doing a podcast during the offseason.
“Having a podcast, doing those kinds of things, I just won’t do them during the season. Because I’m completely focused on football, winning football games and being in championships, but afterwards we can talk about it as much whatever sport we want, whatever we do,” Ware said.
“When I win a lot, I can talk a lot.”
Ware believes the Cowboys defense lacked focus late in the season and knows the consequences of haunting losses to the Giants.
Ware’s approach with Parsons is just part of his broader vision for the Cowboys’ defense and what he would try to bring as a coach to the staff.
“Staying focused at the end of the season when it counts,” Ware responded when asked what the Cowboys defense has been missing in recent years. “Because usually most of the distractions come at the end of the season because you’re playing…everyone is reaching out to you.”
Ware learned the consequences of a lack of focus before the playoffs during his playing career with the Cowboys. For him, he says the toughest times he had in the playoffs were back-to-back losses to the New York Giants.
“Toughest losses in the playoffs? Are you kidding me? The two losses to the Giants!” Ware said. Then they won the Super Bowl, and that was probably one of the hardest things. »
The Cowboys lost to the Giants in the 2007 NFC Divisional Round, when the Cowboys were 13-3 and favorites for the Super Bowl, while the Giants were a 10-6 Wild Card team. The Giants won 21-17, en route to a historic victory in Super Bowl XLII against Tom Brady and the undefeated New England Patriots.
Eli Manning of the New York Giants dives for a first down against the Dallas Cowboys during the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Texas Stadium on January 13, 2008 in Irving, Texas. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Former Dallas quarterback Tony Romo threw a game-ending interception in the final seconds to seal the game, and was closely watched for failing to eke out a win after being seen on vacation in Cabo, Mexico, with his then-girlfriend Jessica Simpson during the team’s first-round bye week. Witten was on vacation with them.
But Ware believes the time off was detrimental to the entire team, not just Romo and Witten.
“I don’t think it was because of the travel, it was because of the break,” Ware said. “We have what we call mojo, and no matter what teams do, you have that ‘it’ factor. We had that. But when you take time off, sometimes a team can lose that…we should have working out every day just to keep our minds and bodies sharp, but something really light instead of sitting around or taking a vacation Because when we came back, I could tell something was missing and that. was the advantage we had.
In 2011, the Giants and Cowboys met in the final week of the regular season with a division title on the line. The Giants won that game 31-14, en route to another Super Bowl championship against Brady and the Patriots.
Ware then left the Cowboys for the Denver Broncos in 2014 and won the first and only ring of his career in Super Bowl L a year later.
The Cowboys have not appeared in the Super Bowl since the 1995 season.
But Ware could have the chance to help end that drought if the Cowboys hire Witten as their next head coach.
