Ron Wolf Says Packers’ Trade for Micah Parsons Could Be ‘Steal’

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 1993, Ron Wolf made one of the most consequential signings in NFL history when he landed Reggie White in free agency.

Can Micah Parsons have the same impact on the Green Bay Packers?

Wolf had a better analogy.

“My only comparison would be when I was with the Raiders. We got Ted Hendricks and it cost two No. 1s to get him,” Wolf said on Monday. “He was a difference-maker and he’s in the Hall of Fame, and rightfully so. We won games because of his ability to block kicks, intercept balls. It’s incredible what that addition meant to the Raiders.

“So, two No. 1s, to me, that’s my comparison. If this guy is whatever everybody says he is, then it’s a steal for the Packers in my opinion.”

The Raiders acquired Hendricks from the Packers in 1975. They reached the AFC Championship Game during his first season, then won three of the next eight Super Bowls.

While Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst dismissed the notion that a team can be one player away – both before the trade and after it – that’s why elite players are worth the price in terms of draft picks and cash.

“Exactly. Exactly,” Wolf said. “Plus, you’re talking about rare players. We’re not talking about some guy off the street. We’re talking about a real, legitimate, generational type of player. If that’s the case, that’s a steal for Green Bay.”

Wolf, who was vice president of football operations for the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers when the Raiders traded for Hendricks, doesn’t follow the NFL like he used to at age 86. Still, from what he knows, he figured the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby, the Browns’ Myles Garrett and Parsons are the best defensive ends in the NFL.

An elite player like Hendricks, White and Parsons tilts the field, as Wolf used to say.

“When you’re dealing with that caliber of a player, they’re rare. They’re just rare,” he said. “You get a player of that caliber, you’re better. When I was with the Raiders, we won several games because of the ability of Ted Hendricks to do the unexpected at the moment it needed to be done.”

Like Gutekunst after the trade, Wolf didn’t like the White-Parsons comparison, which is understandable. While White and Parsons are the only players to start their NFL careers with four consecutive seasons of 12-plus sacks, White arguably is the greatest defensive player who ever lived. He ranks second all-time with 198 sacks, a total that doesn’t include his 23.5 sacks in two seasons in the USFL.

“When you’re talking about the best players to ever play the game, Reggie White as a defensive lineman is in that conversation. I don’t know Parsons well enough to say that,” Wolf said. He went on to rattle off the names of Bruce Smith, Deacon Jones, Gino Marchetti, Lee Roy Selmon and Willie Davis.

“It’s hard as an end to pass Reggie White,” he said.

White, obviously, is on a different level when it comes to franchise-shifting players.

From 1968 through 1991, the Packers ranked 25th out of 28 teams in winning percentage. Starting with White’s arrival in 1993 through 2024, the Packers are first.

“What that did was that changed the Green Bay Packers,” Wolf, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015, said. “Before I got there, people didn’t want to come to Green Bay. Now, here is the No. 1 free agent at that time of all-time casting his light with the Packers. That certainly changed the opinion of everybody in pro football from a players’ standpoint of what the Packers were or what the Packers will be or what the Packers are. Reggie White did that.”

That’s a legacy that Parsons can’t touch. Unless he does what Hendricks did for the Raiders in helping a perennially strong team finally get over the hump. Before the Hendricks trade, the Raiders had won zero Super Bowls and were 1-5 in conference title games. After the trade, the Raiders won Super Bowls in 1976, 1980 and 1983.

Playing alongside first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, White helped the Packers win the Super Bowl in 1996. With presumptive first-ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, they won it again in 2010. 

After that 2010 championship, an incredible amount of regular-season success has led to nothing but playoff disappointment. They lost conference championship games in 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020. Plus, they were ousted in their first playoff game after going 15-1 in 2011 and 13-4 in 2021.

Parsons, who ranks in the top five in sacks, quarterback hits and tackles for losses over the last four seasons, could be the type of field-tilting weapon that finally brings the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay.

That’s why Wolf downplayed the cost of giving up two first-round picks and Kenny Clark. To get one of the rarest of the rare – a legitimate, game-wrecking weapon – the price, within reason, almost doesn’t matter if he can be that player who helps the franchise take the next steps.

“That’s my opinion,” Wolf said. “These guys don’t walk the streets. If he’s what everyone says he is, it’s not a big deal. This is the way I always looked at it: If I draft a guy, I’d have to give one of those away. So, really, all I’m giving up is a No. 1. That’s how I look at it.”

White and Hendricks are in the Hall of Fame. Parsons, based on the first four seasons of his career, could be on his way. His rate of 0.83 sacks per game trails only T.J. Watt (0.89), Garrett (0.88) and White (0.87).

“I don’t know enough about Parsons to comment other than what I’ve read about him,” Wolf said. “It seems to me that he’s a generational talent, so the fact that they only had to give up two No. 1s for a player of that caliber, it’s a great deal for the Packers.”

Reaction from locker room | His first practice | Parsons wants to win | NFL’s best pass-rush duos | Top five Packers pass rushers of all-time | Gutekunst delivers on promise | The challenge becomes the impact | Parsons made impression on LaFleur at Pro Bowl | ‘100 Percent’ chasing Reggie White | One word says it all | Expert grades | Our grade | Winners and losers | Worth every pick, every penny | Dead cap fallout | Imapct on Super Bowl odds | It did create a question