GREEN BAY, Wis. — The betting odds indicate that the race for NFL Defensive Player of the Year is all but over.

At BetMGM, Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett is -1100 to win the award, a massive favorite. Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons is the second favorite at +625, a long shot. Houston Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. is third at +1700, so it’s essentially a two-man race but more like a one-man contest that Garrett can win by walking to the finish line.

Parsons won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021, made the All-Pro First Team in 2021 and 2022, made the All-Pro Second Team in 2023 and made the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons. He doesn’t yet have the most prestigious defensive honor to his name, however, after finishing second for NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, second in 2022, third in 2023 and 18th in 2024 after missing four games.

With Garrett 6.5 sacks ahead of Parsons through 13 weeks and well on pace to break the all-time single-season record, does Parsons think he still has a shot at the award?

“I don’t really know,” he said Thursday. “I just kinda leave that up to the writers and who they vote for. I don’t really control it, but for me, I just gotta just keep playing good football and helping my team win.”

Parsons has a case to be closer to Garrett than the odds show, even if Garrett is beating him handily in three important statistical categories and deserves to be a clear favorite. Parsons ranks third in the NFL in sacks with 12.5, behind Garrett’s 19 and New York Giants edge rusher Brian Burns’ 13. Garrett also leads the league with 28 tackles for loss, while Parsons ranks tied for seventh with 12. Parsons is tied for third with 24 quarterback hits, but Garrett ranks second with 30 and has three forced fumbles (tied for fifth in the NFL) to Parsons’ one (tied for 44th).

According to NFL Pro, however, Parsons ranks first in total quarterback pressures (70; Garrett ranks tied for fifth with 57), first in pressure percentage (20 percent; Garrett ranks fourth at 17.6) and first in quick pressures (33 pressures in less than three seconds; Garrett ranks tied for fifth with 23). Parsons also ranks first with seven fourth-quarter sacks, while Garrett is tied for second with six.

ESPN Analytics slots Parsons second among edge rushers in pass-rush win rate (he beats a block within 2.5 seconds 24 percent of the time), behind the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Nick Herbig. Garrett ranks sixth at 20.5 percent. The respect other teams have for Parsons is evident. According to Pro Football Focus, he ranks sixth in chip percentage among edge rushers (20.52). Garrett ranks fourth (21.89). Parsons also ranks first among edge rushers in double-team percentage (57.51 percent; Garrett is second at 56.8 percent) and first in triple-team percentage (11.85 percent, with Garrett second at 7.4 percent).

And after Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he traded Parsons to the Packers in part to improve the Cowboys’ run defense, Parsons has been stout against the run for a Packers defense that ranks eighth in the NFL in rush defense (98.3 rushing yards allowed per game). If Parsons can catch Garrett in the most flashy defensive category, sacks, the award is probably his. But even Parsons acknowledged the chances of that are slim.

“We talk about this when we train all the time,” Parsons said, referring to his offseason workouts with Garrett. “It’s like running your own race. Me trying to catch up to Myles is probably not gonna happen, and he’s his own different specimen, and he has his own team, and what they do and what they do is special. And I think my race is finding a way to finish these last five games and putting together my best season, and I’m on track.”

Parsons became the first player in NFL history with 12 sacks in each of his first five seasons (sacks became an official stat in 1982), with two and a half against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Parsons only needs two more sacks to set his single-season career high, but he’d need 10 over the final five games to tie Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt for the NFL single-season record that Garrett is likely to eclipse. If Parsons gets on a roll down the home stretch and Garrett hits a dry spell, perhaps just closing the 6.5-sack gap and trimming the 16-TFL discrepancy could thrust Parsons right back into contention.

If Garrett wins in a landslide, though, that doesn’t mean the Packers faltered in dealing their next two first-round picks and a franchise cornerstone to the Cowboys while making Parsons the highest-paid non-quarterback ever. He’s still been everything the Packers bargained for and probably then some.

Adding intrigue to the Defensive Player of the Year race is that Parsons and Garrett are close friends. They not only train together in the offseason, but also communicate frequently during the season and have joked with each other about their 2025 exploits.

“Just watching him train was just eye-opening,” Parsons said. “It made me go harder. That’s the type of guy he is. He competes in everything. We text and talk about it all the time, but this guy does not stop. I think his first five-sack game, he saw me have like three sacks. It was in the same week, and he was like, ‘I saw you had a good game, so I just felt like I had to go out there,’ so that’s the type of guy he is … I just know he’s always watching.

“He’s a good friend of mine, so I told him also, I said, ‘If you don’t break the record, you suck.’ You can’t get this close to the finish line and not finish it, so I’m actually rooting for him in that aspect.”

Parsons emphasized the importance of helping the Packers win since he can’t control who the 50 Associated Press MVP voters elect, and he’s doing just that while Garrett is not. The Browns being 3-9 isn’t much of a knock on Garrett’s candidacy, especially if he’s that far ahead of the pack in sacks and beating Parsons by that many TFLs, but team success may enter the picture if those stats look more alike after the first week of January.

Until then, Parsons might be staring down a third second-place finish in five years.

“I think it’ll be a nice accolade if I’m able to achieve that once in my career, but for right now, I just been playing for respect,” Parsons said. “I think that’s kinda what’s making me go.”

Micah Parsons: “I think every week people question my worth. People try to belittle me and try to take away my name. When you’re the best, that’s what happens.”

Full answer on why Parsons is still striving for more respect⬇️ pic.twitter.com/iZu8iKzNII

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) December 4, 2025