It Will Take This Village for Packers to Replace Micah Parsons

GREEN BAY, Wis. – If it takes a village to raise a child, it’s going to take the entire locker room for the Green Bay Packers to replace Micah Parsons.

The Packers gave up two first-round picks and Kenny Clark to acquire Parsons. So, after essentially giving up three players in the trade, it will be impossible for the Packers to expect one player to replace the production of the indomitable defensive end following his torn ACL.

So, here are seven members of the defense who will have to rise to the occasion for the Packers to not just make the playoffs but make a run.

DE Brenton Cox

Before Saturday’s game at the Chicago Bears, the Packers presumably will place Parsons on injured reserve and activate Brenton Cox from IR.

Cox, who suffered a groin injury in Week 1 and is entering his third week of practice, wouldn’t be just a player-for-player replacement on the roster, though. He should be able to help the pass rush. As we noted before the season:

Cox was a healthy scratch for the first 10 weeks of the season. In seven games down the stretch, Cox has four sacks, five tackles for losses and seven quarterback hits. For sake of comparison, in 17 games, (Lukas) Van Ness had three sacks, six tackles for losses and six quarterback hits. According to PFF, Van Ness had only three more pressures while getting 159 more pass-rushing opportunities.

Cox’s pass-rush win rate last season was 17.0 percent, according to PFF. Among edge rushers with at least 200 pass-rushing opportunities this season, that would be tied for 10th in the NFL. Cox is not a plug-and-play replacement for Parsons. But he could be a significant piece to the puzzle if he can shake off three-plus months of rust.

DE Lukas Van Ness

Now’s the time.

As part of the Aaron Rodgers trade in 2023, the Packers moved up from 15th to 13th in the first round of that draft. If Van Ness would have been an immediate sensation, the Packers might not have felt the need to trade for Parsons.

The fourth defensive-front player selected, Van Ness ranks 15th in the draft class with 8.5 sacks, 14th with 17 tackles for losses and 16th with 22 quarterback hits. He had four sacks and eight TFLs in 17 games as a rookie and 3.5 sacks and six TFLs in 17 games last season. A foot injury has limited him to seven games this season, and he has 1.5 sacks and three TFLs. He returned to the lineup at Denver after missing seven of the previous eight games.

In 41 career games, Van Ness has 55 pressures, according to PFF. In 14 games for Green Bay, Parsons had 79.

DE Rashan Gary

A first-round pick in 2019, you might have heard that Gary still doesn’t have a 10-sack season in his career. He looked to be well on his way this year. After sacking Aaron Rodgers twice in the Week 8 win at Pittsburgh, Gary had a team-high 7.5 sacks. Seven games later, Gary still has 7.5 sacks. By the official stats, Gary has four quarterback hits during that span. Parsons had that many at Detroit on Thanksgiving.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) is tackled by Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Rashan Gary. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

It's safe to say the Packers will have no chance to make any noise whatsoever if Gary’s silence-is-deafening production continues.

“This what I say,” Gary said after the Denver game. “For the rest of the season, what we got? Three more opportunities? Watch how the front play. We had a meeting at the end, brought all the guys up, understanding that there’s going to be a lot of opportunities the next three weeks and we got to take advantage of it, so you going to see how we play.”

Gary led the meeting.

“Just got to find a way to be consistent to get to where we want to be as a team,” he said of his message. “We got to shut things down up front, be more aggressive, how we’ve been and always be on the same page as 11 but especially as a four up front.”

LB Edgerrin Cooper

During his All-Rookie season last year, Edgerrin Cooper led all NFL rookies and all off-the-ball linebackers with 13 tackles for losses. He hasn’t been used in that mode this season. While he’s been consistently solid with a team-high 104 tackles, he has only four tackles for losses – two of which came at Denver.

Cooper is probably the best front-seven playmaker on the roster, so expect defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to turn him loose with the season on the line.

CBs Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine

If the pass rush isn’t as strong or if Hafley has to gamble with more blitzes, it will be up to the cornerbacks to play sticky coverage.

For the most part, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine have had solid seasons. Nixon ranks second in the NFL with 16 passes defensed and Valentine had allowed a 51.2 percent catch rate before the Denver game.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon makes the clinching interception against the Bears two weeks ago. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Both players were shredded by Bo Nix and the Broncos, though. According to PFF, they gave up a combined 9-of-11 passing for 135 yards and one touchdown. According to Next Gen Stats, they gave up 13-of-15 for 178 yards and three touchdowns. There’s always a bit of guesswork in determining who gave up a completion but, regardless of what set of numbers you want to use, they weren’t good enough against the Broncos.

QB Jordan Love

The best defense sometimes is a good offense.

Coach Matt LaFleur had been able to get away with playing conservatively because of the dominance of the Parsons-led defense. Now, he’s going to have to get more aggressive, whether it’s to score enough points to pressure the opposition into a key mistake or to win a shootout.

Quarterback Jordan Love is having an excellent season, ranking sixth in passer rating with 23 touchdowns and six interceptions. So long as the early optimism about Christian Watson winds up being correct, Love will be surrounded by all of his top receivers for the stretch run.

There were quite a few seasons during the Mike McCarthy era that the plan of attack was to take the lead, force a turnover, extend the lead and then run away for the victory. That might be how the Packers have to play, especially if they get to the playoffs and run into Matthew Stafford and the Rams, Sam Darnold and the Seahawks or Jared Goff and the Lions.

Defensive Coordinator Jeff Hafley

Jeff Hafley’s two-year resume with the Packers has put him in position to be some team’s head coach next season.

He’ll have to show why he’s up for the challenge the rest of this season.

There’s no reason to believe Hafley can’t find some magic in last year’s defensive playbook. Last year, the Packers finished sixth in the NFL with 19.9 points allowed per game. After Sunday, the Packers rank eighth with 20.1 points allowed per game.

Yes, last year’s defense allowed fewer points per game than this year’s defense with Parsons.

Hafley will have to get creative. And aggressive. According to PFF, the Packers had the fourth-lowest blitz rate in the season before Sunday. Between blitzes and simulated pressures, Hafley is going to have to dust off last year’s bag of tricks to create a pass rush without having a great pass rusher.

“He added to what we had, for sure, and he’s a hell of a player and he’s a game-wrecker, but we have a lot of talent, as well,” safety Xavier McKinney said of Parsons. “I think that’s a good thing for us that we have these guys that are really talented, so they’ve just got to go in there and step up and be ready to go.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER