Micah Parsons (back) remained limited on Thursday’s injury report.
The Packers edge rusher, who missed all of the offseason program and all of training camp with the Cowboys, was limited the first two weeks he practiced with his new team. Parsons, though, was not on the injury report in Week 3.
Parsons will play on Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys.
The Packers had only two changes to their injury report: Offensive tackle Anthony Belton (ankle) was downgraded to non-participation after limited work Wednesday; and safety Javon Bullard (concussion) returned to practice as a limited participant.
Right tackle Zach Tom (oblique) and left guard Aaron Banks (groin) were out again. Tom is not expected to play Sunday.
Defensive lineman Karl Brooks (foot), tight end John FitzPatrick (groin), running back Josh Jacobs (ankle), tight end Tucker Kraft (knee/elbow), offensive tackle Rasheed Walker (quad) and defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt (knee) again were limited.
Quarterback Jordan Love (left thumb) had full participation.
Micah Parsons is back on the Packers’ injury report with his back issue, which limited him on Wednesday.
The Packers edge rusher, who missed all of the offseason program and all of training camp with the Cowboys, was limited the first two weeks he practiced with his new team. Parsons, though, was not on the injury report in Week 3.
Parsons will play on Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys.
Three players did not practice for the Packers with right tackle Zach Tom (oblique), left guard Aaron Banks (groin) and safety Javon Bullard (concussion) missing the session.
Offensive tackle Anthony Belton (ankle), defensive lineman Karl Brooks (foot), tight end John FitzPatrick (groin), running back Josh Jacobs (ankle), tight end Tucker Kraft (knee/elbow), offensive tackle Rasheed Walker (quad) and defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt (knee) were limited.
Quarterback Jordan Love (left thumb) had full participation.
The Cowboys won’t honor their former All-Pro pass rusher with any tribute before his return to AT&T Stadium. Micah Parsons was the Cowboys’ best player for four seasons before they traded him to Green Bay, but he was in Dallas only four seasons.
Parsons gets it, and he’s not offended.
“There’s a lot of things I can consider disrespectful, like this process, but I wouldn’t say the tribute is one of them,” Parsons said, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com. “I would say I just think hard feelings there maybe for them. For me, I’m happy where I’m at, and we’ve got a really good football team, so I guess I can [receive] my tribute in a win. I hope.”
Parsons expects Cowboys fans to give him pregame applause.
“I think Dallas loves me,” Parsons said. “I think they are going to give me a good round of applause. There are no hard feelings there, at least for me, and I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
Parsons said he has not talked to Jerry Jones since organized team activities, and he never heard from the Cowboys owner during the trade process or after the trade was completed.
Jones believed he and Parsons had a handshake deal and would not negotiate with Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta. Instead, the Cowboys traded Parsons to the Packers on Aug. 28 for nose guard Kenny Clark and two first-round picks.
Now, Parsons faces his former team in his fourth game with his new team.
“Once the game starts, who is going to be worried about any trade?” Parsons said. “It’s just me against them five men in front of me, and we’ve got one common goal and that’s to win the football game. And how we win the football game is by winning the line of scrimmage and affecting Dak [Prescott] and how good he’s been playing this year.
Parsons made 52.5 sacks for Dallas while becoming one of the top defensive players in the league. He has 1.5 sacks in three games with the Packers.
Much of the conversation around Sunday night’s Packers-Cowboys game centers on defensive end Micah Parsons returning to Dallas for the first time since being traded, but head coach Brian Schottenheimer offered a slightly wider view of things on Wednesday.
Schottenheimer admitted that the prospect of facing Parsons “keeps you up even more at night” because he’s seen so much of him over the years and knows he’s capable of doing more than he’s done in three games as a Packer. Schottenheimer said that the Cowboys aren’t just thinking about Parsons as they put together their plan for this weekend.
“Micah is a great player. Micah is going to make plays, I’ll just put that out there,” Schottenheimer said, via the team’s website. “Does he get a sack? I hope not. He might, he’s pretty good . . . let’s not forget, Rashan Gary is a hell of a rusher too. This is a defense that’s got incredible speed . . . they’re deep and they’re fast. Our ability to have success against the Packers defense will be about a whole lot more than just Micah.”
Complicating things for the Cowboys offense is the fact that they’re set to be without wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, center Cooper Beebe, and right guard Tyler Booker. Schottenheimer expressed confidence that his team can win without them, but “the only way you do that is if you play well and you’re executing” against everyone in a Packers uniform.
On Sunday night, Micah Parsons will play in Dallas as a member of the Packers. And it will give Parsons a chance, for the first time in his career, to try to sack Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
How will that feel, if/when it happens?
“It’s going to be painful,” Parsons told Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. “Dak’s my guy. You know, he was always like a good mentor for me. But, you know what it is. He always told me how whenever I face him, it’ll be a great matchup. So I’m excited to see what Sunday brings.”
Everyone is. In a weekend with plenty of great games and storylines, Micah making his way back to Dallas — one month to the day after he was traded — becomes the most compelling development. It’s compelling enough for the entire NBC Football Night in America production to make the trek from Stamford, Connecticut to Arlington for the game.
Thirty-one days after the Cowboys traded him to the Packers, Micah Parsons will return to AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys hope it’s not a triumphant return for the two-time All-Pro.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones admits a little extra competitive drive this week.
“Yes, I do,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “Of course, I’ve said this time and time again, I think the world of Micah as an individual and of course know him well. I might say, ‘I wish him well,’ except it’s obvious I don’t this weekend in terms of Green Bay winning the game. And so, it makes for an exciting time.”
One of Jones’ sayings is “don’t let your money get mad.” That seemed to be exactly what he did with Parsons after believing he and the four-time Pro Bowler had a handshake deal.
“Not at all. It was nothing personal,” Jones said when asked if he let his money get mad. “I told you, I liked Micah. As much as people wanted to make that of it, there was no issue regarding feelings relative to the negotiations. Certainly not on my part. It was just par for the course.”
After failing to sign the star edge rusher to a long-term deal, Jones traded him to a conference rival. They did it a week before the start of the season.
The Cowboys might have gotten more for Parsons if they had traded him before the April draft.
Jones, though, disagrees.
“We needed this timing,” Jones said. “We needed to be right here at the beginning of the season in my mind to get the highest value. I heard people talking about, ‘Well, why didn’t you trade him back before the draft?’ Because draft picks become the most valuable timing wise, you can have them in the offseason before the draft. That’s when the pick becomes much more valuable and the player becomes less valuable.”
The Cowboys got less for Parsons, one of the game’s best edge rushers, than the Dolphins got for left tackle Laremy Tunsil — never an All-Pro — in a 2019 trade with the Texans.
In case you haven’t heard, Micah Parsons returns to AT&T Stadium on Sunday.
Parsons was a member of the Cowboys for four years before they traded him to the Packers a week before the season. He made 52.5 sacks for Dallas while becoming one of the top defensive players in the league.
The Cowboys, though, will not recognize Parsons before the game.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate this way,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Monday, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “Emmitt [Smith coming back] was a different story. But that’s not to diminish Micah. I think Micah’s got enough welcome out there. We just need to show we’ve got antidotes for that.”
Smith played for the Cowboys for 13 seasons and set the NFL rushing record before going to the Cardinals.
Micah Parsons lost his first game since joining the Packers on Sunday and the defensive end gave a blunt assessment of what they did to fall 13-10 to the Browns.
The Packers led 10-0 with less than four minutes left in the game, but the Browns kicked a field goal before safety Grant Delpit picked off Packers quarterback Jordan Love and set the offense up inside the 5-yard line. A game-tying touchdown was followed by a Packers drive to set up a 43-yard field goal attempt that was blocked by Browns defensive lineman Shelby Harris. The Browns picked up 16 yards and Andre Szmyt kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.
“Sometimes, just like today, you s—t the bed,” Parsons said. “That’s just the reality of it. It happens to the best teams. Even the best Super Bowl champs make mistakes, and they pay for it early. You go back to the history of the champions and who’ve they’ve played and games they should’ve won. It’s just part of the game, it’s just that competitive. It’s that hard to win. It’s hard as hell to win football games. When you win football games, it’s a celebration. But when you lose, it sucks.”
Parsons and the Packers will work to clean up their mess before they face Parsons’ former team in Dallas next Sunday night.
In Week Four, the Packers head to Dallas to face the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, a showdown for Micah Parsons with the team that traded him away. That will be a very big game, but Parsons has more pressing issues on his mind right now.
Asked if he’s thinking about the Packers-Cowboys game, Parsons told reporters all his thoughts are about this week’s game against the Browns and trying to sack quarterback Joe Flacco.
“Man, really just getting after Flacco. I kind of like the name ‘The Hunter.’ I haven’t had Flacco yet. I need him. I want him. It’s time to go get him,” Parsons said. “I couldn’t be more excited. It’s just about that QB right in front of me. I don’t want to look past him. I need him.”
Parsons hasn’t sacked Dak Prescott yet, either, and if he does so that would be a big moment in his career. But Parsons knows the priority is the quarterback in front of him, and that’s Flacco.
In 2024, linebacker Micah Parsons played his first road game of the season in Cleveland. In 2025, his first road game of the season will again happen in Cleveland.
And both he and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett have gotten new contracts since their last meeting.
After asking for a trade, Garrett got a $40 million deal from the Browns. Before Parsons got his new contract, he made Garrett a promise.
“I remember him talking about, you know, we’re sitting in the sauna during the offseason, and he was like, ‘You know, if I get a deal, I’m gonna beat the [shit] out of your deal,” Garrett told reporters. (Our best guess is that the word Garrett deliberately omitted was “shit.” It may have been the “F” word.)
Garrett said that, after Parsons asked for a trade, got one, and then got paid $47 million (or thereabout) per year, he texted Garrett and asked, “Did I do right?”
“I was like, ‘You did perfect,’” Garrett said. “So I was glad to see him get what he’s earned, and he’s worth every dollar.”
Through two games in Green Bay, Parsons is earning it. And making the Cowboys look cheap and short-sighted in the process.
