Inside Micah Parsons’ impactful Packers debut: ‘He definitely has an aura about him’

Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Packers head coach Matt LaFleur called his new defensive superstar on Saturday night, less than 24 hours before Micah Parsons’ debut for his new team.

Parsons, LaFleur told him, would be the last player announced before running out of the tunnel during pregame introductions.

During Packers home games, Lambeau Field public address announcer Bill Jartz either announces the offensive or defensive starters one by one — he alternates games — with their position, college, jersey number and name, in that order.

“We’re gonna give you that embrace that you deserve,” LaFleur told Parsons, perhaps the NFL’s best defensive player for whom the Packers traded less than a week and a half before their first Week 1 home game in seven years.

Safety Xavier McKinney, a reigning first-team All-Pro, would normally be last. The Packers, however, had to give the people what they wanted.

“We talked about it,” McKinney said. “I understand. He’s a big addition to this team, big addition to this defense and s—, give the fans what they wanna see, so s—, I’m all for it every time.”

After announcing defensive end Rashan Gary second-to-last, Jartz held his “aaaand” a tad longer to build anticipation for the grand finale. The home crowd erupted.

“That’s pretty sick that they put that together for me,” Parsons said. “Now they can go back to their regular order. I kinda got that feeling, and so, whoever the veterans or the captains are, they can get it now.”

McKinney said it doesn’t matter to him if he’s announced last in two home games.

“I ain’t trippin,” McKinney said. “As long as we go out there and win these games and play how we just played today, I’m good.”

How the Packers played fit the hype preceding their heavyweight tilt with the Lions. Now armed with one of the best defensive players since he entered the league in 2021, the Packers and Parsons did to the Lions what Dan Campbell’s squad has done to them at Lambeau Field in recent years — emasculated them — in the form of an emphatic 27-13 win. Not only did the Packers start the season 1-0, but their statement victory signified the gap between Green Bay and Detroit, perhaps even Green Bay and the rest of the NFL’s elite, has closed.

Parsons only played 29 of 65 defensive snaps, less than 45 percent, as he recovers from a back injury, returns to full fitness after sitting out training camp with the Cowboys and learns the entirety of defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s playbook. In those 29 snaps, everyone inside Lambeau Field and watching on TV saw exactly why the Packers took a herculean swing to acquire Parsons and how lethal an already stout defense can be with him leading the charge.

“His presence? Just being Micah Parsons,” McKinney said. “When you get a guy like that, of that talent, you can put him out there and tell him to just stand there. And before the play is snapped, they’re going to be looking for him because if you’re not prepared for him, it’s not going to be good for you. So I think just his presence out there alone is intimidating for offenses and he didn’t even play the whole game, so once he gets kind of in his groove and he starts getting more reps under his belt, it’s going to be great.”

Parsons’ first snap in green and gold came on the Lions’ first third down of the game, a third-and-7 from their 27-yard line with the Packers already leading 7-0. Parsons looked like he was first trying to muscle past right tackle Penei Sewell around the outside, but Parsons maneuvered inside and swatted at Sewell’s inside hand to beat him before pressuring quarterback Jared Goff. Goff scurried to his right and was forced into a short completion for a loss of 2 yards that preceded a punt.

His second official pressure of three, according to Next Gen Stats, came late in the second quarter with the Lions facing a third-and-7 from Green Bay’s 16-yard line and the Packers leading 17-3 (the Lions were also set to receive the second-half kickoff). Parsons said he didn’t see the Lions slide protection toward him, so he knew he had another one-on-one against Sewell. Parsons told defensive tackle Colby Wooden, aligned to Parsons’ right, to power rush against the right guard. Parsons took a jab step left and juked back right to beat Sewell inside while Wooden occupied his man. With Parsons bearing down, Goff released a quick throw to wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown that safety Evan Williams jumped for an interception.

“You get it to a third-and-long, even third-and-short, you understand that the ball’s got to come out,” Williams said. “Especially against a non-mobile quarterback like (Goff), you can’t run around forever. So yeah, it definitely gave me a little bit of confidence seeing 1 (Parsons) run on the field. You’re like, ‘OK, here we go!’ Now it’s time to guard for not that long because the ball’s going to come out, so that reassurance definitely helps us as cover players.”

Parsons’ lone sack came in garbage time of the fourth quarter, when he fought through traffic on the right side of the line before crossing from outside the far hashmarks to in front of the Packers’ sideline and corralling Goff. NGS clocked Parsons at 18.47 miles per hour (he guessed 21 MPH and said he didn’t even “burst out”). The sideline went nuts and Parsons held his right arm high in the air with his pointer finger extended.

“It looked like a speed of light or a shooting star just coming out of the sky and closing ground fast,” LaFleur said. “That’s why he’s here, right? That was really exciting to see. I definitely know that our crowd reacted the right way, as well. I don’t know if I’ve heard our crowd much louder than when they introduced him, and certainly on that sack.

“He definitely has an aura about him.”

Those three plays will be Parsons’ main impact on the box score, but his influence on Green Bay’s defense went beyond three pressures and a sack. Like when he bulldozed Sewell into Goff’s lap, forcing the quarterback to step up and into a Lukas Van Ness/Rashan Gary shared sack on third-and-6 from Detroit’s 38-yard line after Van Ness bullied left guard Christian Mahogany (Parsons said the Packers call that package with him and Gary on the edge and Van Ness on the interior, “Cheetah”). Or when Parsons occupied two blockers with the Lions on the fringe of their own end zone and nobody blocked Wooden, leading to a tackle for loss on third and 16.

“It just opened like the Red Sea,” Wooden said. “Like dang, they didn’t block me. I just made the tackle. Coach preaches all the time, don’t get tired making the routine play. A routine play is a tackle. Let’s get off the field.”

Parsons is phenomenal himself, but he’s going to make everybody on the Packers’ defense better, too. He said he felt like the Lions started the game by just sending Sewell at him before devoting more chips and slides to him, which opens opportunities for others.

“That’s the type of respect that is warranted,” Parsons said. “You gotta earn it out there on the field, so I gotta show them that I can beat their best and that’s what happened.”

The Packers’ pass rush was inconsistent last season — that’s how general manager Brian Gutekunst described it — and LaFleur fired defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich and replaced him with former Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington. Even so, the Packers ranked sixth in scoring defense and yards allowed per game and fourth in takeaways. Adding Parsons to this defense? And to a pass rush that needed someone like him?

“It’s really going to be a team picking their poison,” Gary said. “You want to chip me? Cool, he’s going to be free. You want to chip him? Cool, I’m going to be free. We have (Devonte Wyatt). We’ve got Colby. We’ve got (Kingsley Enagbare). We’ve got a lot of inside guys that are able to rush. It’s really just pick your poison throughout the front. Adding a guy like that, it only gives us more confidence. It only frees us up better.”

Only a couple of things didn’t go to plan in Parsons’ debut. For one, he was lost in warmups. Cowboys defensive linemen go through pregame in the same far-right corner of the end zone that Packers offensive linemen do, so Parsons ran to them and was told to take a hike. The starting defense also mimics a basketball fadeaway jump shot when leaving their pregame 11-on-11 huddle, but Parsons had no idea that was tradition and was rather delayed and half-hearted in his.

“There’s a lot of things I had to learn,” he said.

LaFleur also said Parsons’ 29 snaps were “definitely” more than they anticipated him playing. Parsons finally came out late in the fourth quarter when LaFleur saw him laboring for air. Parsons said postgame, while seated at his locker, that he was physically drained (he didn’t take an injection for his back pregame) but that he’ll do everything necessary to recover for Thursday night’s game against the Commanders at Lambeau Field. He anticipates his snap count increasing after he said he handled Sunday’s well. He added that he has no doubt he’ll be “full go” by the end of September.

Parsons still had enough energy to jog off the field with quarterback Jordan Love after the $408 million tandem finished their TV interview with CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson, however, and Parsons repeatedly hoisted his arms in the air to invigorate the crowd serenading him as he disappeared into the tunnel — just as he began his afternoon bursting out of it three hours prior.

“It’s back to what football needs to be,” Parsons said. “The trade is done, we got a win, we’re 1-0. Now I’m around some really great guys, some really great guys, a really great organization, a really great fan base and a really great football team. So now we can put all of the nonsense aside. I’m healthy, I’m able to get off the field and get ready for another game Thursday night and just keep trying to win games and just be what ball’s about.”

(Photo: John Fisher / Getty Images)




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