According to the NFL’s new rules around the Physically Unable to Perform list, players who start the regular season on that list will be eligible to return as early as their team’s fifth game of the season. For the Green Bay Packers, that takes on outsized importance — their week 5 contest is a massive one with the Chicago Bears coming to Lambeau Field.
That Packers-Bears game theoretically could have been a target for Micah Parsons to return from his torn ACL. However, recent comments from Parsons have heard
him mention the following week’s game against the Dallas Cowboys as his primary target. On Monday at training camp, he made that more explicit, revealing to NFL Network reporters that the Week 6 contest against his old team is in fact his “most optimistic” return date. Interestingly, Parsons was not expected to make an appearance on the Inside Training Camp show, as reporter Stacey Dales noted that he “crashed our set.”
That timeline may be a bit of a disappointment for Packers fans, given that Parsons returning against the Bears could have been a significant shot in the arm for the pass rush and team morale. Still, Parsons has work to do before he will be able to return to the field. Because his knee injury required a bit more work to repair than recent ACL tears to Tucker Kraft and Christian Watson — there was reportedly more meniscus damage than those players suffered — his recovery timeline may be a bit slower than theirs.
Kraft, of course, is already back at practice and appears on track to return for week one. Last year, Watson returned to game action just shy of 10 months after his injury late in the 2024 season; a similar timeline would have Kraft ready for game action right about September 1st, and with the Packers playing their Week 1 game on September 13th, that looks well within reason for the star tight end.
Perhaps that is why Parsons appears to be targeting Week 6 as the earliest possible return date for game action. His injury occurred last December 14th in Denver, and the date of the Cowboys game (October 18) comes just after that 10-month mark. Fortunately, early returns from training camp indicate that the Packers’ defensive front has been making plays without Parsons, and they will evidently need to do just that through at least the first five games of the regular season in 2026.
