FRISCO - There are a lot of things about Patrick Mahomes that make him "unfair.'' Most of those things are about the Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback's uncannily clever ways to win.
But Dallas Cowboys standout Micah Parsons thinks the perennial Super Bowl QB has another advantage - and an unfair one.
“I just think the NFL should do a better job clearing up the gray area,” Parsons said this week.
And what "gray area'' is that? It starts with the NFL rules in place to protect quarterbacks from taking dangerous hits ... especially when they slide, as occurred last week when Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence slid but was victimized by a dirty hit from Houston's Azeez Al-Shaair.
Al-Shaair was suspended for three games. Lawrence is now on IR with a concussion and probably done for the season.
So again, what is the "gray area''? Parsons notes that a quarterback can advantage of the rule with a "fake slide'' (largely a theoretical idea.) Or, more commonly ...
“If a quarterback acts like he’s going out of bounds, he should go out of bounds,'' Parsons said. "That’s where you should mark him at. If he’s acting like he’s going to slide, that’s where you should mark him at. Because at that point, it’s the contact issue.
"You see a lot of guys taking advantage and getting extra yards off that. Mahomes wins games off that.''
Mahomes has of course had plays before where he has faked going out of bounds, only to stay in bounds and keep running since careful defenders don't want to get penalized. But where Micah's opinion is wrong - and as Cowboys Nation well knows, Micah never met an issue he thinks should go without his opinion - is here: A runner faking to run out of bounds is not dissimilar to a runner juking left and then cutting right.
It's a move. A football move. And to take it away would be akin to saying Parsons can no longer fake dropping into coverage but then blitzing. He "acts like he's going to'' do one thing (Micah's words) and he "wins games off that'' (again, Micah's words).
The area is indeed gray. But hiting Lawrence in the head while he's sliding. And if a tackler wants to be "careful'' with Mahomes on the sideline? "Guiding'' him out of bounds will do the trick nicely.
