GREEN BAY — Upon his arrival in Titletown in late August, Micah Parsons issued a warning. An admirably self-aware one, but a warning nonetheless.
“You’ll realize as I’m here,” the Dallas Cowboys-turned-Green Bay Packers superstar edge rusher said, “I’m probably going to say things I probably shouldn’t say.
“That’s just me.”
Whether anything Parsons said on Thursday afternoon after practice, as the Packers (3-1-1) continued their preparations for Sunday’s road game against the Arizona Cardinals (2-4), qualified as something he shouldn’t have said, well, that’s open to interpretation.
There’s no debating, though, that just about everything Parsons said, was interesting.
From his frustration with NFL officiating crews not calling opposing offensive linemen for holding him, to the defense’s second-half inconsistencies, to his opinion on the Philadelphia Eagles signature short-yardage “Tush Push” play, Parsons had all kinds of thoughts.
But Parsons’ primary topic was how annoyed he is with how frequently he’s being held and not drawing flags.
— CheeseheadTV 🧀 (@cheeseheadtv) October 14, 2025
“[After] five years of not getting a call, you eventually stop worrying about it,” Parsons said when the uncalled holding penalties were brought up to him. “I think I’ve just got to keep going. That’s part of the challenges. You’ve got to keep going.
“[But] that’s bothersome. That worries me. They know that. That’s the part of being one of the best. That comes with some territory.”
Parsons was just getting warmed up.
With evidence of Micah Parsons being held during games without calls being made, the #Packers DE made sure to address what he feels like is a league-wide problem.”If you’re going to say it’s about protecting the players, then protect all players. Don’t just protect one side of… pic.twitter.com/7XZM838CMZ
— Cameron Ezeir (@EzeirCameron) October 16, 2025
After sidetracking to argue that the NFL intentionally calls more penalties on defensive players because the league wants high-scoring games — “They’re trying to load the points up so fans can be happy,” he said, adding, “We know what the higher-ups are trying to do” — Parsons returned to the matter at hand.
“I think there’s, like, two or three a game [where] you should call it,” said Parsons, who enters Sunday’s game with 2.5 sacks, 11 total tackles, eight quarterback hits and 29 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. “The ones that are close, that’s like, ‘Whatever, that’s football. It’s combative. I get it.’ But the egregious ones need to be called.
“That’s how guys get hurt, man. We put so much emphasis on protecting the offense. Protect the defense. … What are we talking about here? Look at how many times that’s on film — [offensive] guys putting their head down and trying to come clean your clock. But you can’t do that to offensive players. [Expletive.] You’ll get a $50,000 fine. I might get a fine for this [press] conference.
“I’m just going to have to keep going, push through it,”
The uncalled holding penalties are something that head coach Matt LaFleur said he has sent clips of into the NFL league office and that he intends to discuss the issue with Sunday’s officiating crew before kickoff.
“Surely you send stuff in occasionally,” LaFleur said Thursday morning. “But that’s definitely a conversation pregame.”
Sunday’s officiating crew for Packers-Cardinals is led by referee Alex Moore, and according to NFLPenalties.com, Moore’s crew had thrown more flags (109) for more yardage (828) than any other crew in the NFL entering Week 7’s games. And 24 of those penalties have been for offensive holding.
Asked if he thought LaFleur politicking might help him get more calls, Parsons replied, “Nah, I don’t think it matters. The refs are going to call what they call. All we can do is just hope we get called a fair game.”
While LaFleur shares Parsons’ frustration with the uncalled “egregious” holding penalties, he still believes Parsons has been a field-tilter for the Packers after they gave up their 2026 and 2027 first-round draft picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark to acquire him.
Beyond Parsons’ own stats, LaFleur believes he’s made those around him better and forced opposing offenses to alter their approach in the passing game, avoiding deep drops and longer-developing passing routes in favor of a get-the-ball-out-quickly mentality.
“He’s been very impactful. Obviously, I think the way teams scheme against us, it’s pretty obvious what they’re trying to do,” LaFleur said. “I mean in some instances, there’s a O-lineman, a tight end and a back right where he is, which is great for the other guys. Now, those other guys have got to win their 1-on-1 opportunities.”
While defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley semi-jokingly issued a ban on holding penalty questions to begin his usual Thursday Q&A session with reporters — although he was more than willing to discuss the defense’s fourth-quarter struggles at length, “No questions about holding,” he proclaimed with a smirk — he, too, insisted that Parsons’ impact has been immeasurable.
“Oh, he is totally changing the game,” Hafley said, later praising Parsons’ play against the run as well. “He’s sometimes got three guys on him, and you’ve got other guys with one, and they need to win. He’s sped up the quarterback.
“I get the whole they’re-catching-a-lot-of-short-passes [narrative]. I’ve got that. But if you give up explosive passes, you lose football games, and they can’t do that against us right now. I think he’s impacting in a lot of phases.”
He was also discussing a lot of issues. Here were some of Parsons’ other greatest hits from Thursday:
• On why he thinks the Eagles, who visit Lambeau Field on Nov. 10 for “Monday Night Football,” should be banned from running the “Tush Push” by the league: “I mean, bro, how many times has a guy [on the offensive line] got to leave early before they call it? Like be serious. … It’s just crazy to me the standards we set and we’re allowing in a football league. This ain’t real football.
“[Expletive], if you ask the Eagles offensive players, they’ll probably say that’s the best thing we’re doing on offense right now. It’s the most consistent thing they’ve got. That might come [back] and bite me one day. But it is what it is. Like, I hate that play.”
https://t.co/RBuaVpA2eM pic.twitter.com/cCfU2eNFhK
— Cameron Ezeir (@EzeirCameron) October 16, 2025
• On how he can make sure his teammates play with high energy all game long on Sunday: “It starts with us. It starts with the best players. We all said it today. I challenged just our front: ‘This is what we’ve been bad at. Let’s just be great at it today. That way we can play great at it on Sunday.’ I’m actually really looking forward to Sunday, because we all said that might have been our best practice on third down and 2-minute emphasis that we had all year. If that situation comes up, I know we’ll be prepared.”
• On the Packers defense allowing 63 of their 102 points this season in the fourth quarter and overtime through five games: “I just feel like there’s a drop of level of play towards the end of the game. I hit on that with the guys and I’ll keep that private, but we alone have to be better at that point. We emphasized it this week. We had a great practice week. I’m excited to see it in the game.”
• On the defensive line likely being without Devonte Wyatt (knee) and Lukas Van Ness (foot) on Sunday: “Bring it on. Come on. I know we’re getting paid a lot of money to do what we do. This is part of being your brother’s keeper. This is part of being a professional. This is part of your preparation. Preparing to do more when it’s unrequired, that’s professionalism. … We’re going to take care of business until they get back.”
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