FRISCO, Texas — Earlier this week, Green Bay Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons said it would be painful to sack Dak Prescott, his good friend and mentor when they were Dallas Cowboys teammates, when they meet Sunday.
“I hope it’s not [painful] for me,” Prescott said Thursday. “And I hope he doesn’t get to me, for one.”
Parsons’ return to face the Cowboys, the team that drafted him in the first round in 2021 then traded him to Green Bay on Aug. 28 after the sides couldn’t agree to a long-term extension, has been the story of the week. So much so that Prescott’s family has talked about it, too.
“It’ll definitely be fun,” Prescott said. “Yeah, it’s one me and my fiancée were just talking about the other day and just all the reps of practice, going against Micah in times when he couldn’t hit me whether him getting back there, just the trash talk back and forth, me telling him he wouldn’t tackle me anyways, he still can’t bring me down. You got to get to that point.
“Just getting to go out there and compete with a guy that’s a good friend, that I’ve competed with in numbers of ways throughout this building, outside of this building. Yeah, just excited to go and have that matchup. But he’s got five guys up front, plus tight ends and running backs that he’s got to get through. Then we’ll worry about if he can get to me.”
Prescott has been sacked just five times in three games, but he will be without two starting offensive linemen in right guard Tyler Booker (ankle) and center Cooper Beebe (foot) on Sunday. He also won’t have his top playmaker, CeeDee Lamb, who is expected to miss three to four weeks with a high ankle sprain.
“It takes all of us to protect, myself included,” Prescott said. “We all know that. Nothing changes this week. He’s a helluva player. We respect that, and he’ll have some attention.”
The Cowboys’ defense misses Parsons. It has recorded just four sacks and has allowed 13 pass plays of 25 yards or more on the season.
“You really can’t dwell on the past. You really can’t,” defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said. “I know a lot of talk or chatter out there about that, but to me, our eyes are forward. We have guys in the building that we’re coaching, guys are working their tail off and we’ve got good enough pass rushers.”
Prescott called the Packers’ pass rush, which has 10 sacks, “great” — and not just because of Parsons. Rashan Gary has a league-leading 4.5 sacks.
“In this league, you’re usually throwing against the pass rush more than you are the coverage,” Prescott said. “You turn on the tape, and that’s what makes this a good defense. They understand that. That allows them to be physical outside, jump things, get as much depth as they need to on certain plays that are a little bit more underneath on man. You can do that when you’ve got a pass rush.”
Prescott said this is not a “Dak vs. Micah” week, just as it wasn’t that way when Ezekiel Elliott returned in 2023 with the New England Patriots.
“Those are never the headlines and never can be,” Prescott said. “This is Dallas Cowboys vs. the Green Bay Packers, and we’ve got to go get a win.”
But he knows this game will not bring closure to the talk surrounding the trade.
“Hey, you got to ask Jerry [Jones] or Micah. To me, the closure happened when the trade happened,” Prescott said.
“I doubt it will be the closure. I doubt you’ll be done with that. Someway, somehow it will get brought up again.”