GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Micah Parsons’ arrival in Green Bay has his new Packers teammates believing any goal is realistic.
Parsons practiced with his new teammates for the first time Monday, four days after Green Bay acquired the superstar edge rusher in a deal that sent three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round picks to the Dallas Cowboys.
Packers offensive tackle Rasheed Walker, who played alongside Parsons at Penn State, went on social media and predicted a Super Bowl title the day after the trade.
“’Sheedo’ says Packers winning the Super Bowl this year what ‘Sheedo’ say Go,” Walker posted Friday on X, referring to his nickname.
Walker was asked about that post on Monday.
“I think it upped our chances by a lot,” Walker said. “We got a solid pass rush across the whole line. I don’t think no one’s going to be able to throw the ball like that on us. It’s going to open up opportunities for our DBs and our offense, so yeah, I feel like Micah’s going to have a good presence on the field and it’s going to really be advantageous to us.”
The trade potentially gives Green Bay one of the league’s best pass rushing tandems in Parsons and Rashan Gary.
“It’s for sure scary with the pieces that we have, the guys that we have, especially with the mindsets we all have,” Gary said. “Especially talking to him today, we’re kind of similar persons in terms of mindset. So it’s going to be scary for teams, for sure.”
Green Bay faces a time crunch trying to get Parsons ready for the start of the season. The Packers have two home games in a span of five days against 2024 NFC playoff teams, as they host Detroit on Sunday and Washington the following Thursday.
Parsons was dealing with a back issue this summer during his contract stalemate with the Cowboys. Walker said he believed Parsons was limited in Monday’s practice but likely would “be more full go” on Wednesday and Thursday.
Parsons said Friday that he intends to be available for the start of the season.
“I’m going to team up with the doctors in creating a plan,” Parsons said then. “We already talked about how we can ramp things up and get me into a flow where they feel comfortable and I feel comfortable. But my plan is to be here. They didn’t give up what they gave up for me to sit on the sidelines and make this big of a risk and change for me to do that, so I’m going to give them my all.”
Green Bay certainly could use Parsons on Sunday. The Packers lost both their regular-season matchups with Detroit last season and sacked Jared Goff only once in each of those games.
Parsons has 52 ½ sacks and has had at least 12 sacks in each of his four seasons. He was an All-Pro selection in 2021 and 2022, and he was a second-team All-Pro in 2023.
The only NFL player since at least 1982 to have 12 sacks in each of his first four seasons is Reggie White, the Hall of Famer who began his career in Philadelphia before helping the Packers win a Super Bowl title in the 1996 season.
“Micah is a generational talent to me,” cornerback Nate Hobbs said. “He’s an amazing player, really feel like (he) transformed the defensive end position. Guys before him paved the way like Von Miller and dudes like that, linebackers-slash-D-end position, but he’s definitely taken it a step further.”
Walker said he never really believed his former college teammate would leave Dallas, though he noted that Parsons had called him and asked about Green Bay last week. Walker told him that Green Bay reminded him of the Penn State experience.
Gary said he learned about the trade only after Clark called to let him know about it. Gary said he visited Clark’s home immediately afterward and said the news was bittersweet because they had played together so long.
Clark had been the longest-tenured Packer and was considered one of the team’s leaders. Defensive tackle Colby Wooden said Clark was “like my big bro.” The defense had been holding film study sessions at Clark’s home during the offseason.
Now the rest of the Packers will have to carry on those lessons without him.
“We’re going to do whatever Kenny taught us to do,” rookie defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse said. “It’s a ‘What Would Kenny Do?’ type situation. We’re going to go out there and play and show that even though Kenny is gone, the standard is still the standard.”
