GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers didn’t exactly thrive without Micah Parsons but they certainly survived with their 5-3 record.

Parsons is expected to practice for the first time on Wednesday following last year’s torn ACL. He won’t play on Sunday against the Patriots and probably won’t play the following week against the Vikings, but he’ll be available for the stretch run.

Acknowledging that “everything around here (is) pretty fluid,” coach Matt LaFleur said: “If I had a bet on it, it’s going to be more towards the longer end than the shorter end.”

Only time will tell if Parsons will be Peak Parsons upon his return, but he will provide a jolt to a defense that defied expectations during the first half of the season.

Surprising Start for Defense

Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said he thinks “every day” about how he will incorporate Parsons.

His unit has been surprisingly good without him. The Packers emerged from Week 8 ranked 10th with 20.5 points allowed per game, a number skewed by the Week 1 avalanche at Minnesota stemming from the offense’s late-game implosion, and the one bad game at Atlanta in Week 3.

They are 10th in total defense (314.9 yards allowed per game), 13th in yards allowed per rushing play (3.89) and third in yards allowed per passing play (5.75). They are second with 15 takeaways – they had 14 all of last season – and 12th in sack percentage.

The sack production – and the impact it’s had on the pass defense in general – is the shocker. They are tied for sixth with 22 sacks even without a single player in the top 15 in sacks and only one (Lukas Van Ness) in the top 44.

For the Packers, it’s been a strength-in-numbers approach. With Gannon deploying his rushers from here, there and everywhere, they have an NFL-high 11 players with at least one full sack.

“Wins and losses are the only stat I’m worried about,” Gannon said, “but, yeah, I think our guys have done a good job of taking the coaching and affecting the game in a positive way, executing the game plan as much as we can and we got some guys winning at a pretty good rate of one-on-ones right now. It’s about the players.”

That’s good deflection from Gannon. Statistically, his defense has been slightly better without Parsons than it was with Parsons under Jeff Hafley. Last year, the Packers finished 11th in points allowed (21.2) and 12th in total defense (311.8 yards per game). Even with Parsons having an All-Pro season, they wound up 22nd in sack percentage and tied for 26th in takeaways.

The Savant

After Thursday’s victory over Carolina, Packers coach Matt LaFleur called Gannon a “savant.”

“I wouldn’t use that word because I’m not,” Gannon said on Tuesday.

But the proof is in the pudding. Without Parsons, who is his best player, and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, who is his second-best player, the Packers are on a five-game streak of not allowing more than 20 points.

The defense is in the top 10 in numerous categories. One of them is “havoc plays,” a TruMedia stat that combines sacks, tackles or losses, forced fumbles, interception and pass breakups. Green Bay is second with 107. It’s ninth in explosive plays allowed (12-yard runs and 16-yard passes), first in stuffs (a running play that gains 0 yards or less) and fourth in opponent passer rating.

“When we went through Phase 1, Phase 2, then we went from OTAs and then we took the summer off, kind of adapted,” Gannon said. “‘Here’s some things we want to add.’ Then we went through training camp and added a few things, took out a few things that I always thought, ‘Oh this is going to be good,’ and our guys, for whatever reason, it wasn’t really good for us. (So), take it out.

“Then I think week to week, they’ve done a good job of executing staples that we have and then taking a couple different things, the different wrinkles – the wrinkles are only in because of the opponent you’re going against or who you have available – they’ve done a good job of taking the wrinkles, curveballs so to speak, and executing on that. And they understand the why behind why we’re doing it and those typically change week-to-week.”

Here’s Comes Micah Parsons

To one of the NFL’s surprisingly strong defenses, the Packers will be adding one of its most dominating defenders. He is the only player in NFL history to start his career with five consecutive seasons of 12-plus sacks. That streak presumably will end this year. If he returns for Thanksgiving Eve against the Rams, he’d have seven games.

Still, while offensive coordinators and quarterbacks are losing sleep over who Gannon is blitzing from where, they probably aren’t especially fearful of Lukas Van Ness, who leads the team with 4.5 sacks. The entire edge group has 9.5 sacks; Parsons had 10.5 sacks in a seven-game span last year.

There’s also a bit of an elephant in the room. Of the top-10 teams in scoring, the Packers have played four. The Lions, who are third in the NFL in scoring, scored only 20 points, though they had more than 400 yards and two freakish turnovers. The Bears are eighth in scoring but played a backup quarterback. The Panthers are ninth in scoring but played without three-fifths of their starting line.

The one game in which there’s no asterisk was against Dallas. The Cowboys are seventh in scoring but managed only 13 points.

More challenges are coming. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye almost won NFL MVP last year. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford did win MVP last year. Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the MVP front-runner this year. There are rematches looming against the Bears and Lions.

The Packers have survived without Parsons. Now, they’ve got a chance to thrive with a difference-making player who has the potential of making a greater impact than any player available at the trade deadline.

The Packers were 9-3-1 last season headed into the Denver game during which he was injured. Without him for the stretch run, the Packers crumbled.

This year, Parsons will be on the field for the stretch run with the goal of making opponents pay for his pain.

“I think when you come out of these situations, you’re either going to be better or you’re worse,” Parsons said during training camp. “And for me, I’ve done everything I possibly can to be better. So, I think people are worried about if I come back. You know, I just feel like people should just be worried about how I’m going to be when I come back. You know? That’s kind of like my mentality – how I feel, and how I’m going to approach when I’m back.

“Like, people are worried about the knee. They should be worried about how I’m going to play when I get back. The anger, the frustration, the things that I’m going to have to let out because of how long it’s been since I played. So, I think that’s what people should really worry about. Like, how great is Micah going to be when he gets back? Not about when I get back, because that’s the short term. It’s about how great I’m going to be, how I can help my teammates, and how far we’re going to go into a playoff run.”

From @JacobWestendorf, here is his always-strong breakdown of the matchups as we start looking ahead to Packers-Patriots. ⬇️https://t.co/Wjtat6us0H

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 3, 2026