The Packers' trade for Micah Parsons is already paying off Andrew GreifSeptember 12, 2025 at 6:10 PM 1 Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) reacts against the Washington Commanders on Thursday in Green Bay, Wis.
- - The Packers' trade for Micah Parsons is already paying off
Andrew GreifSeptember 12, 2025 at 6:10 PM
1
Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) reacts against the Washington Commanders on Thursday in Green Bay, Wis. (Jeffrey Phelps / AP Photo)
Sitting at a broadcast desk alongside Amazon analysts Thursday night, Micah Parsons bobbed his head as fans in front of him in the Lambeau Field stands started chanting.
"Thank you, Jerry!"
Pumping his left arm in the air, Parsons motioned for the chant to go louder.
"Thank you, Jerry!"
Jerry is Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who stunningly opted to trade Parsons, the team's just-entering-his-prime star edge rusher, to Green Bay on Aug. 28 after a breakdown in negotiations for a contract extension. Only two weeks later, the trade that led Parsons to a massive payday has already paid dividends for the Packers, too.
On Thursday, they improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2020 by beating Washington 27-18 in a game that wasn't as close as the score would indicate. Green Bay led by double digits for nearly half of the game as quarterback Jordan Love surgically dissected Washington whenever it chose not to blitz. He completed 19-of-31 passes overall for 292 yards, with two touchdowns, and tight end Tucker Kraft caught six passes for 124 yards.
Yet the victory was more notable for the statistics that weren't compiled.
The Packers' defense bottled up Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels in ways few have since he entered the NFL last season and promptly began tearing up defenses on the way to delivering the Commanders to their first conference title game since 1992.
Daniels finished with 217 total yards, the third fewest of his career in a game in which he was not injured. His completion rate, 57 percent, was his fifth-worst in his 22-game career. As measured by yards per play, it was his worst performance.
"It just felt like we didn't find the rhythm that we needed to, really from jump street," Washington coach Dan Quinn said postgame.
Per ESPN, Daniels faced a blitz on 46 percent of his dropbacks to pass, the highest percentage of his career, finishing 3-for-11 for 26 yards with a touchdown on dropbacks when blitzed. The strategy was atypical for Green Bay, which blitzed at the league's second-lowest percentage last season, and even less during Week 1. Yet with Parsons on their roster, the Packers have the ability to deploy a new wrinkle that wasn't present before.
Daniels, after the game, said Green Bay's team speed didn't surprise him, but that the Commanders "just didn't execute."
It was further proof of concept that the Packers' defensive front featuring Parsons, edge rusher Rashan Gary and defensive end Lukas Van Ness could help establish Green Bay as the best challenger in the NFC to reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.
And the Packers' defense didn't just make one of last season's trickiest offenses look pedestrian — they've done it two weeks in a row.
One of the few offenses to present even more defensive headaches than Washington last season was Detroit. That Lions unit lost its coordinator Ben Johnson to Chicago and a star offensive lineman, Frank Ragnow, to retirement, but most of the pieces that made it last season's high-scoring offense, averaging 33.2 points per game, returned. In Week 1 at Green Bay, the Lions didn't score a touchdown until the game's final minute en route to mustering just 13 points while losing 27-13. The Lions' dual-threat backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery ran for 44 yards combined.
Five days later, Green Bay stayed undefeated by bottling up the run, again. Washington gained just 51 yards on the ground, the fewest by the team since Week 18 of the 2023 season. Daniels, the same quarterback who rushed for a rookie-QB record last season, gained just 17 yards on seven carries. Washington advanced the ball inside Green Bay's 20-yard line once on 11 drives.
At one point late in second half Kraft, the Packers' tight end, had amassed more yards by himself than the entire Commanders offense.
"I wouldn't expect anybody in this locker room to hit a panic button," Daniels told reporters afterward. "We faced a really good team and we came up short."
It was an interesting choice of words, the second consecutive week a Green Bay rout had led its opponent to swear it was not time to "panic."
September football should inspire caution. Many key starters no longer participate in preseason games, and the season's first month of counting games can feel like the new warmup period. At the end of last season's first month, Philadelphia was an unsteady 2-2 and its coach was on the hot seat. The Eagles, of course, went on to win 16 of their last 17 games, including the Super Bowl.
Yet by opening against Detroit and Washington, two of last season's most difficult matchups, Green Bay's early schedule figured to be more revealing than most about their potential in 2025. Thus far, they have run through their competition, no different than a Parsons pass rush.
There is a long time until the postseason. But if they continue to look anything as they have through their first two games, the thanks to Jerry will continue.
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: Astro Blog
Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities