Acme Packing Company
Now that we’re all relatively sober, it’s time to start thinking about what the Green Bay Packers can do on defense with the addition of Micah Parsons. We released our projected 2025 depth chart just two days ago, but clearly, things have changed.
Let’s dive into the adjustments.
Nose Tackle
The only player the Packers lost in the Parsons trade was defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
Holy crap, we really got the best defensive player in the league for two playoff first-rounders and a soon-to-be-30-year-old we were going to cap casualty anyway next year.
Clark was expected to move to nose tackle this year and be the starter, after playing the three-technique in 2024 and defensive end for Joe Barry. So who steps up in his place?
It’s not the two rookie Georgia defensive tackles Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse, who mostly got work with the third-team defense this summer, but actually Colby Wooden, who reinvented himself as a viable nose tackle this offseason after adding weight. In summer camp, Wooden took the vast majority of first-team snaps whenever Clark was unable to practice.
Expect Wooden, a former fourth-round pick who has never played more than 28 percent of snaps in a regular season during his career, to be Clark’s replacement. I’m sure Brinson and Stackhouse will get looks at nose tackle, but this is Wooden’s job, for now.
Micah Parsons
Alright, we’re going to have to break this up into two categories: Where Parsons will line up in nickel sets and where Parsons will line up in base sets.
In nickel sets, with only two linebackers on the field, Parsons will obviously be an edge rusher. That’s the role he’s played in nickel looks full-time since his second year in the league. The Packers didn’t pay him nine figures to drop into coverage. They paid him to rush the passer.
Nickel sets make up about two-thirds of Green Bay’s snaps. Generally, the Packers match the number of cornerbacks they play defensively to how many receivers are on the field for the offense. The rate of these plays fluctuates depending on the opponent, but it averages out to Green Bay facing three-receiver sets about two-thirds of the time.
In base defensive looks, where the Packers only have two cornerbacks on the field, the team has options.
First, they could just play him at defensive end, where he would displace Lukas Van Ness. The other option the Packers have, though, is to keep Van Ness, who has been performing well this summer, on the field and take off linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, which would allow Parsons to play the strongside or “Sam” linebacker position.
In the preseason, the Packers frequently played 3-4 fronts and “under” fronts out of 4-3 personnel, meaning that they had players playing out of position. The adjustment made was kicking Van Ness from the edge to inside the offensive tackle, which jammed up the interior of the defense. Basically, Van Ness got the chance to play a pseudo defensive...
