Micah Parsons says his recovery from a torn ACL is moving better than expected, but he still cannot put a firm date on when he will return. The Packers star said the next stretch will determine whether he is back earlier in the season.
“Man, it really just depends, it really just depends,” Parsons said, adding that he feels “ahead or on track to be there earlier in the season,” even if the exact timetable changes with each phase of rehab. He said the first three months went well and that he has “just finished learning how to walk again,” but now needs to “learn how to run again soon.”
That matters in Green Bay because the Packers paid a steep price for Parsons before last season, sending two first-round picks and Kenny Clark to get him. The move looked justified almost immediately. Parsons produced 12.5 sacks in 14 games, then went down with the knee injury in Denver.
What followed showed how much the Packers lost when he was gone. Green Bay did not win another game after Parsons was injured, going 0-5 without him, including a loss to the Broncos and a playoff loss to the Bears. The season ended with a collapse at Chicago, after the team had been in position to win the NFC North before he got hurt.
Parsons was integrated relatively slowly into the lineup before the injury, but his impact was still obvious. He was named first-team All-Pro even though he missed the end of the season, and he said he believed the Packers would have won the game if he had been healthy. “I believe so,” he said when asked that question, then added: “I won when I was in Green Bay, so I don’t see why I can’t pull out another one out of two of those games.”
For Parsons, the personal goal matches the team stakes. He said he wants to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a race in which Myles Garrett was the favorite again at FanDuel Sportsbook and Parsons carried fourth-shortest odds. He also framed the Packers’ chances in blunt terms: “Besides I always have a rule that if my quarterback puts up 21 points, you’re probably going to win the football game.”
The immediate question is not whether Parsons wants to come back. It is whether the next phase of recovery keeps matching the first three months, because that is what will decide whether Green Bay gets its defensive centerpiece back early enough to matter.