You could feel the numbness on the Green Bay Packers sideline through the TV screen. The air came out of the balloon when Micah Parsons was down on the field with what they later discovered was a torn ACL. His injury isn’t just a major blow for the Packers; it decimates the dream.
This isn’t an overreaction to the moment. It’s not hyperbole to get clicks. The Packers can’t win the Super Bowl without Micah Parsons.
Matt LaFleur and the rest of the coaching staff will preach a next-man-up mentality. They’ll talk about the talent that still exists on this roster and how it’s enough for Green Bay to make a run. They have to do that.
The reality is a lot darker.
Two statistics among many really stick out like a sore thumb when considering the true impact Parsons had on this team and this defense.
The first came courtesy of ESPN’s Get Up when a graphic flashed on the screen Monday morning. It showed Parsons and his number of pass-rush wins this year. That number stood at 66. As for the combination of Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare, Devonte Wyatt, and Karl Brooks? That number is 67.
Wyatt, like Parsons, is out for the year in what was already a major gut punch for Jeff Hafley’s defensive front. Losing Parsons is a whole other ordeal.
Think about that number again. Parsons alone had 66 pass-rush wins this year. The core players who will be expected to step up in Parsons’ absence the rest of the way have combined for 67. It’s a group that consists of five players, with three living on the edge of the line of scrimmage, as Parsons does for the most part.
The second number is just as deflating.
Parsons will finish his season with 64 quarterback pressures, currently the most among NFL players. Second on the team is Gary, who has 28. Per Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the difference between Parsons’ 64 and Gary’s 28 is the largest difference among a top-two duo in the entire league.
Why bring up Gary specifically? Because he will be tasked with rallying the troops and stepping up in Parsons’ absence. It’s the same Gary who has a grand total of zero sacks and zero tackles for loss in the last seven games. He is now the primary focus for opposing offensive lines, and it hasn’t been pretty lately.
Keep in mind, Gary hasn’t been producing with Parsons in the lineup and drawing damn near all the attention. How is it feasible to expect him to be better with Parsons out?
The Packers were considered a threat in the NFC before the Parsons trade. Green Bay traded for him to put itself over the top. Not only was it clearly working, but Parsons also masked many of the issues this defense faced last year.
Green Bay’s defense did a lot of great things under Hafley in Year 1. Getting pressure by rushing four was not one of those things. It’s a staple of Hafley’s system, and the Packers struggled mightily in that department last season. Parsons single-handedly changed that dynamic. Now it feels like it’s back to square one.
Parsons was a one-man wrecking crew at times, but as one of 11 players on the field, he helped every level of the defense. All the attention paid to Parsons, all the double teams faced, freed up one-on-one looks for everyone else on the defensive front. Now that is gone.
All the quarterback pressures — the disruption Parsons caused, rushing the opposing quarterback’s process and decision-making — put the secondary in advantageous positions. A lot of that is now gone.
There’s a strong case to be made that Green Bay’s three most important players are Jordan Love, Parsons, and Tucker Kraft. Two of the three are done for the year. Given the ripple effect Parsons has on the entire defense, this just isn’t a team that can win it all.
Playoffs? Yes. Green Bay still has a great chance to punch a ticket to the postseason.
Win a game in the playoffs? Sure, why not! It’s possible.
Run the gauntlet of the NFC and win three in a row, and then win one in February against the best of the AFC? It’s just not realistic after the Parsons injury.
Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos felt irrelevant. The loss of Parsons felt eerily similar to the conference championship losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 and to the Seattle Seahawks in 2014. It felt like the end of something. Green Bay still has three games left in the regular season, and then hopefully a playoff appearance. But Sunday in Denver felt like an abrupt end to this campaign.
