Acme Packing Company
My head is spinning. Your head is probably spinning. The Green Bay Packers found their Reggie White/Charles Woodson for this era with the addition of All-Pro pass-rusher Micah Parsons.
I’m just gonna rattle off a bunch of things I think about the trade because I can’t string them all together in a coherent way right now.
The buzz today
After posting my article detailing where the situation was on Wednesday, I got confirmation that last night the Packers’ brass reported back to the facility to work on some aspect of the Parsons trade — be it on exact contract details or the actual trade. This was supposed to be their first night off since cutdowns, so it was pretty notable that the team was putting in the work on their side.
Once national reporters finally came out and said that the Dallas Cowboys were open to offers, I figured this would happen pretty quickly. Again, as I reported, Parsons’ representation already had a rough number from Green Bay well before he was officially on the market.
The compensation
Two first-round picks and Kenny Clark in exchange for Parsons makes sense in this trade. Khalil Mack went for just under two first-round picks when he was traded in his prime, and Clark was likely to be a cap casualty in 2026 — especially if he were on the roster after the addition of Parsons. Clark and center Elgton Jenkins were the players who, due to their age and cost, were most likely to be released from the team in 2026 anyway. Had general manager Brian Gutekunst given in to Jenkins’ contract demands this summer, the team might not have been able to pull the trigger on this one.
The starting lineup
With Clark out of the picture, the starting nose tackle for this team is probably Colby Wooden, who got all of the opportunities to “start” in camp whenever Clark was held out of action. The pecking order there this summer, after Clark, was Wooden, then rookie Warren Brinson, then rookie Nazir Stackhouse.
As far as Parsons goes, the team has options. There’s no doubt that he’ll be an edge defender in the team’s nickel looks, but I wouldn’t discount the idea of him playing Sam linebacker in their 4-3 base.
Throughout the preseason, the Packers played a lot of 3-4 and under front looks out of 4-3 personnel. Basically, this put a defensive end (Lukas Van Ness) in an interior position and allowed the Sam linebacker (could be Parsons) to essentially line up like an edge defender. There are ways to get Parsons, Rashan Gary and LVN all on the field at the same time is the big takeaway here.
The only issue is that LVN is really the only defensive end on the team who does well when kicked inside, just from a holding up against the run standpoint. Is the team willing to play Parsons at off-ball linebacker when LVN is getting breathers so that they can get...
