The NFL world was stunned last week, when the Dallas Cowboys did what no fan wanted them to do. After months of hatred festering on both sides, Jerry Jones decided to cut his losses, taking draft capital in exchange for Micah Parsons, one of the premier, young defensive stars in the league.
The Green Bay Packers were happy to oblige, parting with two first round picks and defensive starter Kenny Clark in order to get Parsons in green and gold. It was a trade that almost every GM would have made. Despite having to hand Parsons a massive contract, it’s almost impossible to find a player of his caliber through the draft consistently. Now, Parsons will have to go through a quick ramp-up period in order to contribute early in the season.
Considering that Parsons was dealing with a back issue before being traded, many have been wondering if he’s healthy enough to feature in Week 1, and if he will actually know enough of the playbook to play a lot. While the Packers could opt to take it easy, some Green Bay analysts don’t believe that will be the case.
How many snaps will Micah Parsons play in Packers debut?
Justis Mosqueda of Acme Packing Company recently outlined a similar situation to Parsons’. Back in 2018, Khalil Mack was traded to the Chicago Bears mere days before the start of the regular season. He ended up playing a major role from the get-go.
While Mack didn’t start for the Bears, he did play a majority of the snaps in that game. In total, he played 42 defensive reps, good for 70 percent of the game. That was his season low in 2018, but it wasn’t extraordinarily low… Mack immediately became a “starter” (even though he played the majority of snaps in Week 1) the following week. In the next three games, he played 48, 50 and 51 reps, pretty close to his snap count in Week 1.
That precedent should put Parsons on track to play plenty in Week 1 and even more starting in Week 2. There’s also the emotional factor of Parsons wanting to show Jones and the Cowboys exactly what they gave up on. Coming out in Week 1 and notching a couple of sacks would stick it to his former owner and team. He surely would love that.
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