The Green Bay Packers shook up the landscape of the NFL on Aug. 28.
It’s a day that will live in infamy in the state of Wisconsin.
The Packers, normally set as a conservative franchise that would never give up the draft capital it takes to acquire an impact player, made the largest trade in the NFL since the Denver Broncos traded for Russell Wilson.
Brian Gutekunst traded two first round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys for the right to acquire linebacker Micah Parsons.
For a few minutes, it was almost as if everyone surrounding Green Bay wanted to make sure what they were reading was real.
Micah Parsons is a Packer.
Before we get to the upside of everything that is a player who has production equal to that of former Packers’ great Reggie White, there are some drawbacks.
First and foremost, the two first round picks are going to set Green Bay back in terms of player acquisition.
That is obvious. Of course, that is the price you pay to acquire great players. If there were ever a player to give up that kind of draft capital for, it’s the 26-year-old star pass rusher entering the prime of his career.
The loss of Clark is something that will sting both on and off the field.
Clark was one of the most respected players in Green Bay’s locker room. He was a leader and one of the elder statesmen on what is still the youngest team in the NFL.
Gutekunst started his press conference Aug. 29 to introduce Parsons, by spending a few minutes thanking Clark for his contributions to the team.
“ I want to start by thanking Kenny Clark for the nine years he was with us. What an exceptional player, exceptional person. Really hard to see him go, but there was really no way around it,” he said.”That was the one thing that was going to be part of this trade no matter what for them.”
On the field, Clark will be leaving an interior defensive line that was already trying to replace TJ Slaton in the spine of its defense.
Now, there will be a group of five players who have never experienced a full workload in the NFL, trying to fill the void left by Slaton and Clark.
Colby Wooden, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, and rookies Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse will be up first.
This is a move, however, that you make 10 times out of 10.
Yes, the sticker price is high, but a deeper look shows that Green Bay got Parsons at a relatively affordable price.
The picks are what they are. The Packers will have to find affordable ways to build their roster without them.
Clark, as good as he is, was a player likely headed to be a salary cap casualty at the end of the 2025 season.
Now, instead of releasing him, the Packers used Clark to help them acquire a younger, more impactful player.
That’s where Parsons comes in.
It’s hard to exaggerate how good he has been through the first four seasons of his career.
Only two players in NFL history have had 12 or more sacks in each of their first four seasons. Parsons is one. The other is some guy named Reggie White.
Anytime you’re in the same sentence as one of the greatest players in NFL history, that is good company to keep.
Parsons is a unique piece that can be used all over Green Bay’s defense.
“The picks and the financial part of it, that’s always a lot. But at the same time, like I said, this is a very unique player that rarely becomes available to us,” Gutekunst said. “So a little bit like X and Josh Jacobs, there’s just not a lot of these players at this point in their career where their best football is ahead of them, that become available. And like I talked about on, I guess it was Wednesday, every opportunity that we have to improve the football team, now and in the future, we’re going to take a look at. Certainly this was something we were going to take a look at, and then we were just fortunate enough that we were able to get it across the finish line.”
The unique skillset of Parsons should give Jeff Hafley the ability to keep offenses guessing.
Parsons entered the NFL as an off ball linebacker who occasionally played defensive end. He’ll presumably do both in Green Bay, which gives them a linebacker trio of Parsons, Quay Walker and Edgerrin Cooper in their base 4-3 defense.
When pass rushing situations arise, Parsons can move to a defensive end spot, moving Lukas Van Ness inside, where they’ll be joined by Devonte Wyatt and Rashan Gary.
That’s a fearsome foursome, and the other three players are guys that Parsons should make better.
Gary has been a good player, even if he has not been great. He was dealing with chips and double teams at a career-high rate a season ago. Now, he may never see a double team again.
Van Ness was having a great training camp. He should have plenty of opportunities to win one on ones as well.
In the secondary, pressure is the ultimate equalizer.
Parsons’ presence should allow the Packers’ front to get after opposing quarterbacks, and quickly.
Life is much easier as a defensive back if you don’t have to cover for that long.
This trade was massive. It’s the biggest acquisition by the organization since Reggie White signed in Green Bay in 1993.
If the goal, as Gutekunst says it is every year, is to chase a championship, the move is a no brainer.
Parsons steps into the locker room and is immediately their best player.
He knows it’s time for him to prove that.
“I’m not even gonna lie. There is a lot of expectations, and I’d be a fool to not think there isn’t expectations or there isn’t pressure in the position that I’m stepping into,” Parsons said. “But then again, that’s a blessing in itself. That means that they believed in me that much to put that much — they believe I’m that much of a future in this organization and they showed that in every which way. So that just alone shows me the type of person I need to be in this building every day and I’m very determined.”
We’ll see if that determination leads Parsons to another playoff win, and more importantly, Green Bay’s first Super Bowl title since February 2011.
