NEW ORLEANS — If Saquon Barkley is the Giant Who Used To Be, his close friend, Micah Parsons, is the Giant Who Never Was.
The Giants infamously passed on drafting Parsons in 2021, choosing to trade out of the No. 11 pick and allow the Penn State star to slip to the Cowboys.
The Giants wound up selecting bust Kadarius Toney at No. 20 and potential bust Evan Neal with the extra first-round pick gained from the Bears.
“I’ll never forget it,” Parsons told The Post on Thursday at Super Bowl 2025 radio row. “Honestly, playing next to Dexter Lawrence, I’d probably have 60 career sacks already. He’s a dawg.”
Considering Parsons already has 52.5 sacks in four seasons with the Cowboys, 60 is not a stretch.
But the respect from Parsons to the frequently double- and triple-teamed Lawrence across rivalry lines still holds — and serves as advice for Kayvon Thibodeaux.
“If I was Kayvon, I would line up to Dexter Lawrence’s side every time, make your best move every time,” Parsons said. “You have to be a 10-sack guy. I would line up next to Dexter because there is no way they’ll put [just] two hands on Dexter Lawrence. You are talking about a nose tackle having nine sacks in nine games. You have to be serious.”
Parsons was promoting the EA Sports Madden Bowl, which pits two gaming expert finalists against each other with a $1 million prize purse Friday night at The Orpheum Theater.
Parsons plays plenty of Madden himself, but it’s safe to say he doesn’t select the Giants as his team after the draft night debacle.
“The Giants lied to me,” Parsons later told CBS Sports. “People don’t know this: They told me that if I fell to No. 11, they were going to pick me. I swear. That’s why I punish the Giants every time. It’s personal with them.”
Parsons’ comments were a reversal of what he previously has said on not holding a draft-based grudge against the Giants.
League sources told The Post at the time that the Giants — led by general manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge — and other teams had questions about Parsons’ off-field character coming out and the hope was that he already would be off the board by No. 11.
The Cowboys traded from No. 10 to No. 12 and still landed Parsons, who was part of three straight 12-5 seasons before their step back in 2024 led to a change in coaches.
Former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer now calls the shots instead of Mike McCarthy.
“I don’t think anything is a surprise,” Parsons said. “We tend to hire more familiar faces. We just want to play disciplined football. … At that point, you can win a lot of football games.”
While the Giants and Cowboys missed the playoffs, the NFC East’s Eagles and Commanders met in the NFC Championship Game.
“We can turn it around quickly,” Parsons said. “We beat playoff teams. Coulda, shoulda, woulda league, right? But we’re not a team that’s just some rollovers. We’re a contending team even without half of our [injured] starters. We’ve got some players, and we’re going to go play.”
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