Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs have come from out of nowhere to be in the DPOY conversation

The Cowboys defense is being led by two superstars.

There are still three weeks left in the regular season which means there is just under two months left until this year is completely over for the NFL. It goes without saying that we are all hoping to see this end with the Dallas Cowboys winning their sixth Lombardi Trophy, but if they pick up a couple of other awards and accolades along the way nobody is going to be upset about it.

Such was the case during the middle of this week as it was announced that Dallas has five Pro Bowlers this season, two of which are on the defensive side of the ball in Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs. It is highly probable that Parsons is also going to pick up Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and is well in the running along with Diggs for Defensive Player of the Year.

While the two of them have had monster seasons for the Cowboys, what they are doing was not predicted by most oddsmakers. It is quite interesting to look back at just how far they have come from an odds perspective.

Aaron Donald, T.J. Watt (sigh), and Myles Garrett are players who oddsmakers figured would be in the mix for Defensive Player of the Year long before the season began. Obviously they have had incredible seasons, but they were thought to be contenders well before all of this started.

While hope was high around here for Diggs taking a step in his second year, nobody could have ever foreseen that he would have double-digit interceptions before Christmas. His play hasn’t been as stable defensively as his teammate’s play, but he has been exceptional from the jump.

Parsons has obviously been the surprise of the season for the Cowboys in an overall sense. He is a big reason for the team’s resurgence on the defensive side of the ball. It goes without saying that he has inspired a lot of hope among fans as evidenced by this week’s SB Nation Reacts poll.

Optimism is high for the Cowboys and why wouldn’t it be? They head into the holiday weekend as a 10.5-point favorite over the Washington Football Team, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, They are a playoff team and very likely going to be division champions with a strong chance of earning one of the top seeds in the NFC.

Sometimes football seasons go exactly how we predicted them to, whether good or bad. We all had different levels of belief that this year could be prosperous for the Cowboys, but in no universe did we envision it being because of a stout defense carrying them down the stretch.

Here’s to many more pleasant surprises.

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