While Green Bay Packers fans are riding sky high following the trade for defensive end Micah Parsons, there are still 31 other teams in the league fighting for the Lombardi Trophy this year. Let’s take a look at some league-wide power rankings, so we can see how analysts stack the Packers among their competition for the upcoming season.
Green Bay was fourth in defensive expected points added (7.1 per 100 snaps) a year ago despite not having a player in the top 35 in sacks. Now, Matt
LaFleur and company have Micah Parsons, who’s had at least 12 sacks every year he’s been in the league. Parsons and Rashan Gary give Green Bay one of the league’s scariest pass rushes and one of the league’s most complete teams. The Packers have officially joined the top tier of contenders.
They have a ton of young talent ready to take the next step. The Micah Parsons trade gives them the sack-game-over defender they lacked.
Yes, they had to give up defensive tackle Kenny Clark in their big trade, and if you believe Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, that’s a really big deal. Regardless, going out and getting a player like Micah Parsons on the eve of the NFL season is the kind of thing a serious contender does. It’s not just that Parsons had 52.5 sacks over his first four NFL seasons, it’s that he’s the kind of player that offensive coordinators have nightmares about. He makes them change their game plans. He’s a disruptive force. Who wouldn’t want a player like that? (Well, yes, Jerry Jones). The Packers’ run defense will be fine without Clark. And Parsons might just be enough to put them over the top considering how close they were in games against the Eagles, Lions and Vikings last year.
Some of the sager members of the NFL media corps had already picked them as the NFC’s Super Bowl 60 entry … not that anyone, cough, is looking for credit. But with Parsons now coming aboard in the kind of deal Pack fans rarely enjoy? Better buy another bandwagon. Or two.
I’m drinking all the green and yellow Kool-Aid this year. Green Bay got through 2024 with a quarterback who never seemed truly healthy and a defense that often performed like a contender despite lacking any true difference makers. Now that edge rusher Micah Parsons is in the fold, this team is in line to take a major leap this year.
Their schedule will be a beast this year, with nine games against teams favored to make the playoffs, so it’s still possible that their regular-season record won’t reflect the team’s actual quality. Head coach Matt LaFleur has earned my trust, though, and I expect the Packers to have a huge influence on how the NFC shakes out.
I was on Wisconsin radio this summer, and when they asked me about the Packers’ roster, I told them I liked it, that there was a good distribution of talent, but that it lacked true blue-chip players. Trading for Micah Parsons on the eve of the season is a pretty good way to shut me up. And after the team just drafted a first-round receiver in Green Bay? These are some very uncharacteristic moves for this franchise that have the feel of a confident front office. You make moves such as these when the picture is nearing completion — and when the competition is thickest, as it is in the NFC North. And boy, that puts the target squarely on Jordan Love. But it’s hard not to love what Green Bay has suddenly assembled if a few things come together. Losing Kenny Clark is tough, but Parsons is a singular defender who will elevate the team, possibly even in Reggie White-like fashion, as long as his back injury doesn’t become a problem.
Micah Parsons changes everything. However, the Packers also need a healthy Jordan Love and Jayden Reed, who dealt with injuries in August.
Some might say awarding the Lombardi Trophy now is fair with Micah Parsons in Green Bay—but jokes aside, his arrival is a massive boost to the pass rush.
The addition of Parsons was a massive get for a Packers team that had a weakness in its pass rush. Green Bay had a respectable 45 sacks in 2024, but the team struggled to generate consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
The flip side of that addition is that it ratchets up the pressure on the rest of the Packers team. Expectations have gone from winning the NFC North to winning it all.
And with the Lions on tap in Week 1 followed by a Thursday night date with the Commanders, a slow start will not be welcomed.
Which clubs do these writers think are better than the Packers? In all eight of the rankings listed above, the Philadelphia Eagles had the edge over Green Bay. After that, the AFC’s Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs topped the Packers on seven lists, followed by the Buffalo Bills on five, the Detroit Lions on three and the Washington Commanders once.
So if the season was played out on paper, at least according to these analysts, it would probably look like the Packers going 14-3, splitting their Lions series, losing on Monday Night Football in Week 10 to the Eagles and also the Week 17 revenge game against Jaire Alexander’s Ravens. They would win the division, but ultimately fall short to Philadelphia in the NFC postseason.
If that happens, there will be a lot more empty hair follicles in Wisconsin in January. Hopefully, Green Bay can surpass these marks.
