From ‘Scary’ to ‘Nightmare,’ Packers React to Micah Parsons Trade

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last week, Rasheed Walker said he thought there was a slight chance the Green Bay Packers would trade for his former Penn State teammate, All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons.

On Thursday, it happened.

“He called me earlier in that week asking me about it and I pretty much gave him the rundown,” Walker said after Monday’s practice, the first of the week leading to Sunday’s season-opening showdown against the Detroit Lions. “He was like, ‘You know, it might happen,’ and I said, ‘Sh**, man, would love to have you. And then boom, it happened, so good for us.”

With Walker starting at left tackle, the Packers reached the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. With Parsons, the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl, Walker posted on X.

“Oh, yeah, for sure,” he said. “I think it upped our chances by a lot. We got a solid pass rush across the whole line. I don’t think no one’s going to be able to throw the ball like that on us. It’s going to open up opportunities for our DBs and our offense, so, yeah, I feel like Micah’s going to have a good presence on the field and it’s going to really be advantageous to us.”

That’s why general manager Brian Gutekunst called Parsons a “unique” player multiple times the day after the trade. Last season under defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the Packers finished sixth in points allowed, fifth in total defense and fourth in takeaways.

Parsons could turn a good defense into a great one.

“It’s scary. It’s for sure scary with the pieces that we have,” fellow defensive end Rashan Gary said. ‘The guys that we have, especially with the mindsets we all have. Especially talking to him today, we’re kind of similar persons in terms of mindset. So, it’s going to be scary for teams, for sure.”

Second-year linebacker Edgerrin Cooper called Parsons “explosive” and a “great” player.

“Nightmares for the offensive side of the ball,” Cooper predicted. “I feel like Haf’s going to have a pretty fun time with us, so ready to look towards that.”

That explosiveness and playmaking ability was evident in college.

After redshirting at Penn State in 2018, Walker was a three-year starting left tackle in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Walker was a quality Big Ten player. Parsons was an elite player.

As the next great player at Linebacker U, Parsons was a freshman All-American in 2018 and a consensus All-American in 2019. In the Cotton Bowl, which wound up being the final game of his college career, he had 14 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for losses and two pass deflections. Parsons sat out the 2020 season to focus on the 2021 NFL Draft and was the 12th overall pick by the Cowboys.

“We got recruited together,” Walker said. “If you watch his high school highlight tape, you could learn a lot from there. Kid was playing running back, returning kicks and stuff. Shoot, I think one of his best games he played at Penn State may have been in the Cotton Bowl. We played Memphis, he had like three sacks, some crazy stat line. Micah’s always been like a crazy talented player.”

Parsons mostly played linebacker as a rookie for the Cowboys in 2021, when he was a first-team All-Pro and earned NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, before moving full-time to the edge. He was first-team All-Pro in 2022, second-team All-Pro in 2023 and merely a Pro Bowler for a fourth consecutive season in 2024.

“When he’s rushing, crazy-good first step and just good lateral movement,” Walker said. “He’s just like a freak athlete. I feel like personally we could do a lot of stuff with him – stand him up, stand him over the center on third down, having him rush the edge. He played linebacker in college, he could run sideline to sideline, so I mean he’s going to definitely contribute a lot, and he could play running back.”

Wherever he’s lined up, he’s made an impact with 52.5 sacks in four seasons.

“Shoot, his play speaks for itself,” Gary said. “The name speaks for itself. I feel like the sky’s the limit for him. I feel like the sky’s the limit for our defensive line group. Just can’t wait to see him go.”

During the pre-practice stretch on Monday, Walker and Parsons stood next to each other for a moment and struck up a conversation.

“Probably just talking trash to each other for a second,” Walker said. “Or, ‘We’re going to get this work today’ or something like that.”

Parsons, practicing for the first time since he did a little light work at the Cowboys’ mandatory minicamp in June, took limited reps at Monday’s practice. Walker expected Parsons to be more fully integrated into practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before Sunday’s game against the Lions.

“It was good looking over my shoulder seeing Micah over there because we kind of grew up together in college, hang out off the field, got a bunch of mutual friends,” Walker said. “Just to see him, just to have my eyes on him, it felt good. Even to get some reps against him, that felt even better. It was kind of nostalgic.”

Packers Trade for Superstar Micah Parsons

What did Micah Parsons look like at #Packers practice today? Story and video ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/XNH4dIU59l
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 1, 2025