Paul Bretl | 9/5/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Micah Parsons has been ramping up both physically and mentally for the Packers’ Week 1 season opener against the Detroit Lions.
Parsons has been limited in the Packers’ practices this week, but Matt LaFleur did acknowledge that there has been a progression over the three practices in what he’s been asked to do. This ramp-up is not only to be mindful of Parsons’ back, but to get him where he needs to be physically after not practicing all summer due to the injury.
After each day, the Packers evaluate how Parsons has responded to his workload. The team is “hopeful,” as LaFleur put it, that he can be available in some capacity on Sunday.
However, along with physically preparing himself for Week 1, Parsons has also been learning a new defensive playbook and scheme on the fly–a task that has come fairly easily for him.
“Honestly, bro, the system’s been pretty easy,” Parsons said on Thursday. “I think they’re just good teachers – great teachers. The coaches been unbelievable getting me in extra meetings, staying out later, coming in before, coming in on the off-day, and just me on my own time catching up to make their transition a lot easier. So, we all just been hands on trying to learn this playbook.”
In just a few short days, Parsons believes that he is already 80% through Hafley’s playbook.
“The thing I have learned in a short period of time, he’s got a really high football IQ,” said Jeff Hafley. “I mean very high IQ. I mean he can take the information and give it back to you very quickly and that has been very impressive. That is something I did not know because I’ve never been around him, but he has a high football IQ.”
Parsons’ robust football knowledge is derived from the work he puts in and his love of the game–wanting to constantly learn more to help further his growth as a player.
Additionally, his time in Dallas, specifically playing under Mike Zimmer last season, has also played an important role in helping Parsons with the transition to Hafley’s playbook. Zimmer was Parsons’ defensive coordinator for just one season with the Cowboys, but his impact on the pass rusher, specifically his understanding of the game from the offense’s perspective, was huge.
“I’m actually really grateful for Zim,” Parsons said, “because I told him coming here I was like, Zim taught me so much about protection. ‘This beats protections. Expect this in this protection.’ Some of the looks they’re over here trying to teach me, I’m like, ‘Yo, I’ve been under the master Zimmer, so there’s not much you can pretty much tell me about protections. I understand how each alignment is going dictate the pressure, me aligning is going to dictate the pressure and how we can open things up.”
Hafley found out that the Packers were trading for Parsons when LaFleur walked into his office and handed him the phone with Parsons on the other end. Not long after that phone call ended, Hafley began watching Parsons’ tape, specifically every pressure he has generated during his NFL career–and there are a lot of them. To be exact, at least according to PFF, Parsons has 352 total quarterback pressures in his first four NFL seasons.
As a defensive coordinator, the film work that Hafley does is on opposing offenses as he puts together his game plans or self-scouts his own Packers’ defense. So having the opportunity to truly closely examine Parsons’ game was “fun” and like “watching a highlight film.”
The crash course in Parsons’ film helped Hafley gain a deeper understanding of all the ways he could utilize Parsons within his defense. Of course, Hafley wasn’t going to divulge what any of that might be, but the big grin on his face every time he talked about Parsons highlighted what seems to be endless possibilities.
“We’re learning like, who can go here, it’s like the chess board, back to the chess board,” Parsons said. “We’re learning what piece is what and I think Haf, he wants to make me a queen again and move me around and he’s tryna say, what do you like? What don’t you like? And I’m like, man, I like it all. Just load it whatever and then we’ll talk about (it later) and I think that’s what he’s been doing.”
If there has been a challenge so far for Parsons, it’s been in taking it slow to start, both in terms of monitoring his reps on the practice field and in what the Packers will ask of him schematically in his first game.
While Parsons may want everything at once, realistically, from Week 1 to Week 2 and so on, there is going to be a progression in terms of how much Hafley puts on his plate Xs and Os-wise. Naturally, there is extreme excitement around the addition of Parsons, and the urge is to thrust him into the mix right away to see the fullest extent of his impact.
However, it’s still a long season, and the Packers don’t want to get ahead of themselves either. Both physically and when it comes to the playbook, the Packers and Parsons will ramp up as fast as possible, but they’ll stay on course as well–moving quickly, but not in a hurry.
“I’m so hungry, I want it all at once,” Parsons said of the playbook. “But that’s why you got coaches and I always been like that. I never been the type to say, I’m finna come back on seconds. I’m finna load the plate all at once. I’m finna get everything I need in one meal, so that’s just always been me since I was a kid and as players, all we know — like I said, I tell people all I know is go.
“I do have to get healthy, I do have to do all those little things to make sure there’s a longevity piece in this. It is 18 weeks. There is hopes for playoff run and a long playoff run, so we have to think about that and making sure that everything is good to go.”