Packers Film Room: Micah Parsons!!!

I had been gathering clips and starting to write about the Packers newest offensive lineman – Darian Kinnard – but then the Micah Parsons news hit and I decided to pivot. The plan is to still write about Kinnard, but Parsons felt more pressing and, frankly, more fun.

So let’s get started. Micah Parsons – formerly of the Dallas Cowboys – is a newly-turned 26-year-old pass-rusher from Penn State. Drafted 12th overall in the 2021 draft, Parsons has racked up 52.5 sacks over his first 4 years. His lowest total in a season was 12 sacks in 2024, when he played 13 games. He is a 2-time All Pro, 4-time Pro Bowler and 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year.

In 2024, despite playing in only 13 games, Parsons ranked 5th in the league in QB Pressures (75), tied for 5th in sacks (12.0) and tied for 3rd in QB Quick Pressures (33) (per NFL Pro). If you want to look at some other stats, ESPN’s Pass Rush Win Rate has Parsons tied for 3rd in the league in 2024 at 23%. PFF had Parsons as the best pass rusher from the middle of the line in 2024, with an elite 93.7 grade and a win rate of 30.77%. They had him as the #2 edge rusher overall, just behind Myles Garrett.

In short, Parsons is an elite defensive player who, at 26 years old, is smack-dab in the prime of his career. You don’t need me to tell you that he is good, because you probably already know that. To say he is a transformative piece for a defensive is an understatement. He’s a field-tilter, and those guys aren’t typically available at this stage in their careers. He changes the way the Packers can play defense, allowing them to win with 4-down pass rushers, while making the sim-pressures Hafley leaned into last season even more lethal.

I’ve been watching Parsons clips since early this week, on the off-chance this was actually going to happen. As a result of that, I have a bunch of clips I’ve grabbed, so I wanted to put some of them here. A “we’ve seen the numbers, let’s see the player,” kind of thing.

One of the things that really gets me excited for what Parsons could be in Green Bay is how effective he is from multiple positions. He can be devastating off the edge, but we’ve also seen him line up in the B gap and win immediately, causing quick pressure right into the lap of the QB.

Beyond just the B-gap rushes, we’ve seen him line up inside a wide-9 rusher and win quickly to the inside.

And there’s what he can do off the edge, winning with power, speed, quickness and malice.

He’s a demon off of stunts, which should be a terrifying proposition for offensives around the league, since the Packers can now pair Parsons with Edgerrin Cooper or Quay Walker on interior stunts. Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness also excel at being crashers in the stunt game, which could open a nice lane for Parsons to loop into.

Ollie Connolly – one of the best football minds in the business – recently wrote about the most effective blitzing linebackers, naming Cooper as “the Blitz Prince that was promised.” Pairing Cooper with Parsons feels like it could be a cheat code in the hands of Jeff Hafley.

There will be questions in the run game for sure. When lined up on the interior, there are examples of him getting blown off the ball. That will certainly happen at times if he’s lined up over a guard and trying to win in that situation (especially if they’re throwing multiple big bodies at him). He’s not a guy who is going to be an immovable object against a double-team.

There are multiple other examples of Parsons setting the edge or slicing through the line and beating blocks due to his quickness.

He’s not going to be the guy who single-handedly shuts down the run game for the offense, but he’s a physical presence at the line who is more than willing to set a hard edge and will generate the occasional tackle-for-loss due to his quickness and aggressiveness. There are times he will freelance a bit for the sake of creating a big play and there are times he will “guess wrong,” but that’s the cost of doing business sometimes. (To be clear, this is something that is done by a lot of great pass rushers.)

Overall, I liked what I saw from him in the run game more than I thought I would. He’s a willing and physical presence at the point of attack and he’s able to weaponize his quickness.

Parsons is the type of game-changing talent that not only changes the way you can play defense, but enhances the things you already want to do. Given what we saw from Hafley last year, I think we’re going to see Parsons used in a variety of ways this year, and I fully expect him to excel everywhere he is placed.

Long story short: Micah Parsons is good.

Albums listened to: The Beths – Straight Line Was a Lie; Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend; The Beaches – No Hard Feelings