As Packers running back Josh Jacobs continues to spend the early weeks of the 2026 season on paid leave, the NFL reportedly still hasn’t gotten access to the key piece of video generated by the incident that resulted in a guilty plea to battery.
Via Danielle Lerner of USA Today, police in Wisconsin are delaying the release of the video — both to the NFL and to the media.
Last month, the judge presiding over the criminal case lifted a temporary court order sealing the evidence in the case, while concluding that the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department had the discretion “to apply a balancing test between the rights of the public, the defendant and the victim in deciding whether to release the records.”
In an October 13 letter to USA Today, Hobart-Lawrence police chief Michael Renkas explained that, although the department determined it could release some records with “appropriate redactions,” it is required to wait because the lawyers in the underlying case intend to seek a new court order blocking the disclosure.
“Accordingly, the Department is temporarily withholding all responsive records in accordance with the statutory waiting period and any applicable court orders,” Renkas wrote. “This temporary hold does not constitute a denial of your request or a reversal of the Department’s balancing-test determination.”
Some in league circles believe Jacobs could return from paid leave soon, with the games Jacobs has missed eventually being credited toward his suspension. However, it seems unlikely that the NFL will allow Jacobs to play until it sees the video.
The NFL learned the hard way the lesson of closing a player’s Personal Conduct Policy case without first seeing the relevant video. The release of the Ray Rice elevator video in September 2014, coupled with a report that the NFL had seen it before it was leaked to TMZ, sparked a major controversy that threatened the employment of the Commissioner.
Surely, the league won’t risk putting itself in that same position again. And so the bottom-line message is, or should be, that Jacobs doesn’t play until the NFL sees the video.
Packers Clips
The Cowboys had a mini-bye after losing to the Buccaneers last Thursday. The extra days off were good news for wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (thigh) and left tackle Tyler Guyton (back).
Both were banged up in the Week 5 game.
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who missed Thursday’s game after coming down with an illness pregame, was limited with an ankle injury.
Cornerback Cobie Durant (hamstring), outside linebacker Von Miller (rest), linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (hamstring), offensive tackle Drew Shelton (hamstring) and cornerback Ameer Speed (knee) did not practice.
Safety Alijah Clark (hamstring), outside linebacker James Houston (shoulder), cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. (knee) and left guard Tyler Smith (thumb) were full participants.
Micah Parsons called Week 6 a realistic date for him to return from last season’s torn ACL over the summer, but the Packers defensive end won’t be back on the field ahead of Sunday night’s game against the Cowboys.
While there was added resonance for many because Parsons used to play for Dallas, he said on this week’s episode of his The Edge podcast that made “the game bigger than what it was.” He said it is “just another game” to him and that his focus is solely on getting back to feeling totally healthy even if he feels like he would be ready to go if this was the final game of the season.
“The biggest thing that people worried about with me, they’re like, ‘Man, why ain’t he back yet?’ If the Super Bowl was this week, I’m playing in the Super Bowl,” Parsons said. “But it’s just about me making sure I have all the small things fixed first. What a lot of people don’t figure out is, it’s not just the ACL. It’s like, why did the ACL happen? What was weak? Because it all works together. It’s a chain. And throughout the history of ACL, they notice if you come back early, there tends to be an overcompensation injury on the other side. Or it could be on the same side. . . . We just gonna make sure everything is right before — It’s like, what’s the point of getting me back for four weeks and then next thing you know, my groin’s bothering me. I have a core muscle, now I’m missing.”
The Packers have a road game in Detroit in Week 7 and a quick turnaround to a Thursday night home game against the Panthers in Week 8. That closes out their October games and that could point to a Parsons return for the second half of the regular season.
Micah Parsons still isn’t ready to play after last year’s knee injury, but he still knows how to mix things up.
Parsons recently said on his podcast, The Edge with Micah Parsons, that quarterback Jayden Daniels is to blame for the game-clock clusterfudge at the end of overtime in the Giants-Commanders game.
“Jayden Daniels probably cost my man Dan Quinn his job, to be honest with you,” Parsons said, via Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic. “To be honest with you. And, like, I’m a big Jayden Daniels fan. But the reality is, he probably cost a lot of people their jobs this past weekend. . . .
“All respectfully, we get coached so much on these situations that, like, I’m a defensive player, and this shit’s programmed to me. I even know what to do in those situations. There’s no way I’m taking a sack with 14 seconds left and no timeouts. . . . And, mind you, it’d be different if Jayden Daniels was a rookie. This is your third year. This is your third year. You’ve been to the NFC Championship game. You’ve been in big moments before. And to me, like even after a sack, you’re casually getting up.”
Parsons made it clear that, in his view, quarterbacks are expected to always know what’s going on.
“This is your job, bro,” Parsons said. “This is your job to be prepared to understand the game and understand situations. That’s in your job profile. And you’re telling me, ‘Oh, we’re gonna want to pay this guy eventually $60 million? This cannot happen. . . . I’m a big JD5 fan, but that’s inexcusable, bro.”
Parsons said that the Packers work on situational football “every day,” What happened at the end of the Giants-Commanders game should have required no discussion, frankly.
“This is a lack of preparation, a lack of mentality, and a lack of urgency,” Parsons said. “That just can’t happen.”
Parsons isn’t wrong. The fact that it did happen raises plenty of questions about the level of preparation and attention to detail, as created by the coaching staff. It speaks to potential cultural flaws, perhaps one in which Daniels hasn’t been challenged or held as accountable as he could have or should have been, given his standing in the organization.
It would be a lot easier to make sense of all of this if the Commanders had recorded and preserved the relevant communications. And Daniels surely will face even more questions on this topic the next time he speaks to reporters.
The fact that the outcome was so bizarre, so jarring, and so downright surreal becomes a horrible moment for everyone involved. As to the ultimate consequences, Parsons hit the nail on the head — Daniels’s failure to take charge of the situation in the moment will probably cost Quinn his job.
But Daniels will continue to be the starting quarterback because, even if he made an inexcusable mistake as to one of the easiest parts of the job, he does the hard parts better than most of his peers.
Earlier in the day, reporting out of ESPN indicated Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons is not expected to return to practice this week as he continues to recover from a torn ACL suffered late last season.
In his Monday press conference, Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that will be the case.
“Soon as they give us the green light, he’ll be out there,” LaFleur said. “So, that hasn’t happened yet. But I think we’re getting closer.
“There’s a lot of testing that goes on before he gets medically cleared to get out there,” LaFleur added. “And then I’m sure we’re going to want to give him some time to get back to playing football. As you see with most guys who are coming off a major injury, it takes a little bit of time.”
That means Parsons will not be back in time to face the team that traded him, as the Packers will play the Cowboys on Sunday night this week.
LaFleur noted the team wants to make sure Parsons is in the best spot possible when he comes back.
“I mean, he’s a physical specimen. He’s a creature of nature, for sure,” LaFleur said. “And sometimes, you’ve got to make sure that your body is [in sync]. … You don’t want one leg to be that much stronger than the other leg, is what I’m getting at.”
The Packers play the Cowboys at home on Sunday, the Lions on the road in Week 7, and then come home to play the Panthers on Thursday night in Week 8. They have a game on the road against the Patriots in Week 9 and a home matchup against the Vikings in Week 10 before a Week 11 bye.
When the NFL announced this year’s schedule this spring, there was hope that Packers defensive end Micah Parsons would be back in time to face his former team in Week 6 but it doesn’t look like that will happen.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Parsons is not expected to return to practice this week. That would leave him out for Green Bay’s Sunday night trip to Dallas to face the Cowboys.
Parsons said over the summer that this week was the “most optimistic” date for him to return from last season’s torn ACL. A more recent report indicated that a November return to game action was now seen as the most realistic time for Parsons to get back into the lineup, but Schefter reports that the Packers still hope Parsons will be back before the end of this month.
The Packers have won their last two games to improve their record to 3-2 and getting Parsons back would be a shot in the arm to the rest of their push to advance to the postseason.
Packers defensive lineman Javon Hargrave’s season is over.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that tests on Monday confirmed the fear that Hargrave tore his Achilles during Sunday’s win over the Bears. He’ll have surgery and then begin the rehab process with an eye on a return to action in 2027.
Hargrave is the second Packers defender to tear his Achilles in the last two weeks. Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper suffered the same injury in Week 4.
Hargrave had six tackles, two quarterback hits and a pass defensed over the first five weeks of the season. He signed a two-year deal with Green Bay this offseason, so he remains under contract to the team through the 2027 campaign.
Another week, another possible torn Achilles tendon for a member of the Green Bay defense.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave is believed to have suffered that injury late in Sunday’s 31-7 win over the Bears.
Hargrave, 33, signed with the Packers in the offseason. A third-round pick of the Steelers in the 2016 draft, he has spent four years in Pittsburgh, three in Philadelphia, two in San Francisco, and one in Minnesota.
Last Sunday, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper was lost for the year with a torn Achilles tendon.
While an MRI will be needed to confirm the injury, a torn Achilles isn’t difficult to diagnosis without imaging. If the tendon is torn, it’s usually obvious.
The Packers blew leads late in losses to the Bears in both the regular season and playoffs last season, which would have provided Green Bay with plenty of motivation for Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field all by itself.
Bears wide receiver Luther Burden gave them a little but more ahead of the game, however. Burden said this week that the Bears wanted to “beat them real bad and make them quit” and his thoughts were noted in the Packers’ locker room.
After the Packers rolled to a 31-7 over their NFC North rivals, linebacker Zaire Franklin called out Burden in his postgame comments.
“You got guys that never really made a real play in this league talkin’ bout making somebody quit,” Franklin said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “That’s weird. We don’t do that. He quit today, by the way. He ain’t wanna play anymore.”
Burden had six catches for 47 yards in the loss.
The Bears had won two games in a row without quarterback Caleb Williams, who suffered a hamstring injury in a Week 2 loss to the Vikings. The streak ended on Sunday, with a sluggish 31-7 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field.
After the game, in which the Bears were outgained 428 yards to 245, coach Ben Johnson made it clear that Williams is close to returning.
Williams, we’re told, is still regarded as week-to-week. As one source put it regarding the timing of Wiliams’s return, “When he’s ready.”
The recovery process has progressed to on-field workouts, so it could indeed be next week (at the Falcons) or the following week (vs. the Patriots), if Williams continues to progress.
They need him, based on Sunday. Starter Tyson Bagent was benched after throwing a pair of interceptions, and Case Keenum didn’t fare much better. They combined to complete 23 of 40 passes for 195 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 39.1.
The defense needs to do a little more, too. After three straight games allowing 12 or fewer points, the Chicago defense struggled to contain the Green Bay offense.
