Packers Traded for Micah Parsons, Who Won’t Trade for Himself in Fantasy Football

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers traded two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys to acquire Micah Parsons.

Clearly, the Packers believe Parsons can help them win a championship.

The same can’t be said for Parsons’ belief in his ability to help his fantasy football team win a championship.

“Naw, man. I had the first pick in the draft. It was kind of like a snake” draft, Parsons said, meaning he had the first pick of the first round, the last pick of the second round, the first pick of the third round and so on. “I’m waiting two rounds. I couldn’t give up that type of draft capital. But we’ve got some really good players. We’ve got a really good lineup right now.”

So, Parsons settled on somebody else: second-year Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.

Cooper played his college ball at Texas A&M, but Parsons didn’t watch him. Upon arriving in Green Bay, it didn’t take long for Cooper to catch Parsons’ attention and earn a spot in Parsons’ lineup.

“It’s crazy, because my fantasy football lineup, I stayed mostly offense and it came down to my defense, and they saw me pick up Coop,” Parsons said on Tuesday, two days before a Thursday night showdown against the Washington Commanders. “And they were like, ‘What do you know?’

“Because I’m watching practice and I’m seeing everything we’ve got dialed in and what we’re putting in, and so I started him and he goes off and gets me 36 points. It’s like, ‘Ahh, so you knew something.’ I was like, ‘Listen, we can’t do that. I just had a feeling.’ I know he’s part of my starting lineup, and I expect that type of tenacity and effort every single game.”

Parsons played 30 snaps in Green Bay’s 27-13 victory over Detroit on Sunday. It was a surprising workload considering he missed all of training camp with Dallas and was acquired only 10 days earlier.

It was Parsons, though, who pushed for additional snaps to help get himself in football shape rather than working-out shape.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons celebrates after the victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday. | William Glasheen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“It’s just mind over matter,” Parsons said. “I was tired as ever but, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to want it a little bit more than the next guy. I think that’s just what it’s about. It’s the determination, it’s the will, it’s the grind to really push while you’re tired.

“I told them the other day when they were talking to me about the snap counts, it’s like, ‘Man, we could run gassers, we could be in practice and you give me these plays, we can run to the ball but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to let me push through some things. You’ve got to let me get tired and get wore out out there so that way I can become better and get better.’ That’s when it was like, OK, your reps can go up. Sometimes you’ve got to fight for your own right to play.”

Even with the heavier-than-expected workload and his sore back, Parsons said he had only “normal” soreness after the game and “should be ready for Thursday” against the Commanders.

In the fourth quarter on Sunday, Parsons sacked Jared Goff to cap a whirlwind 10 days.

“Of course, I was tired from everything: celebrating with the team, everything, the chips was wearing me down, too. A bunch goes into it, but every play is mind over matter. You have to put your mind to run to the ball. I’m talking to the guys and I’m like, ‘Bro, you all showed a glimpse of what it’s like if we run to the ball every time.’

“It don’t matter who misses the tackle. It doesn’t matter. Everyone’s running to the ball, that’s mind over matter. Even when we’re tired, we’re going to be such a good football team because you can’t give up explosive plays. That means so much. If you’re watching that film even as a player and as an opposing coach, you’re probably like, ‘What the f***? We don’t want to play against this.’ And you don’t see that everywhere. We could turn on some other team’s film and you won’t see eight to nine guys’ helmets to the ball. You just don’t see that, so this is a really good group and now it’s just all about sustaining that and being consistent with it.”

With an everyone-to-the-ball approach, the defense was dominant against Detroit. The Lions led the NFL in scoring last season but didn’t find the end zone until the final moments.

With Parsons providing one of the team’s four sacks and Cooper tallying 12 tackles, the Packers’ posted the fifth-most fantasy points last week, according to Yahoo scoring. Unfortunately for Parsons, he didn’t get to pick Green Bay’s defense, either.

“I wasn’t there to be able to last that long,” Parsons said. “They took me in like the eighth round. I was like, ‘OK.’ It was crazy, because the round I was ready to take the Packers defense, myself, we were all gone. So, I was like, ‘I’m not going to reach for nobody else. Whatever I get in the late scoops, I’m just picking up extra running backs, extra receivers, things like that.”

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