GREEN BAY — Upon learning that the Green Bay Packers were adding one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers to his unit, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley immediately got to work.

Although, to Hafley, the hundreds of game clips of new Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons he watched in the wake of the blockbuster trade didn’t much feel like work.

“All of a sudden, Micah Parsons walks in the building and, I mean, it’s game week and my mind starts going 100 miles an hour on all the ways that you can use him,” Hafley said Thursday after Parsons’ second practice with his new team.

While Hafley typically breaks down film of opposing offenses — like, for example, the Detroit Lions outfit that’s coming to Lambeau Field for Sunday’s regular-season opener — this assignment was different.

“I watched probably every one of his pressures that he’s had in his NFL career,” Hafley said. “So, a lot of years.”

Four years and, according to TruMedia, 330 quarterback pressures — tied for the most in the league over the past four years along with the Las Vegas Raiders’ Maxx Crosby.

And his two-thumbs-up review?

“Fun. I mean, it’s like watching a highlight film,” Hafley said during his first weekly Q&A session with reporters. “You just turn on his pressure tape and the guy can win.

“Here’s what’s amazing about the guy: The guy can win with speed. The guy can win by going through a tackle. The guy can win coming inside and win fast. The guy’s won on guards, he’s won on centers, he won as a standup linebacker. So just turn on the highlight film and have fun.

“I don’t want to get up here overexcited — you guys are starting to bring that smile on to my face, I kind of want to downplay this thing a little bit — but I’m excited that he’s here.

“I’m excited for our players. I’m excited for our whole team right now.”

The only thing tamping down Hafley’s excitement is the challenge of figuring just how much Parsons can realistically play in Sunday’s game after not practicing during the offseason or during training camp with the Dallas Cowboys — and with the back injury that was the alleged cause of his absence from practices during camp.  

Although Parsons wasn’t willing to flat-out say he plans on playing against the Lions, he certainly talked like a man planning to play — at least on a limited snap count.

“The coaches are slowly getting me the plays and getting me things that I need if we decide to give me the green light out there,” Parsons said at the start of a 15-minute post-practice interview session with reporters outside the Packers locker room. “It’s completely up to the coaches, though.”

By conversation’s end, though, Parsons was also saying this: “I’ve been trying to practice hard with the reps they’ve gave me on the ramp up, and see what their plan is for me this game. And see how they’re going to unleash me.”

Does that sound like a guy who isn’t playing on Sunday?

The decision Hafley, head coach Matt LaFleur and the rest of the coaching staff face doesn’t appear to be whether to play Parsons, but how much.

“We’re hopeful, but no guarantees,” LaFleur said. “There’s a progression in regards to the number of reps and how much work he’s going to do. But who knows how he’s going to feel?”

Parsons estimated that he’s learned roughly 80% of the Packers’ defensive playbook, a number that sounded high before Hafley raved about Parsons’ “very high football IQ” and eagerness to learn.

“What’s today, Thursday? He hasn’t even been here for a week,” Hafley marveled. “I have a pretty good idea of what he can do. And I have a lot drawings packed away for when he is ramped up and ready to go. But for now, it’s just getting a glimpse of what he is going to be.

“We’re trying to figure out early what he can do best, what he can do right now, and what gives our team the best chance to have success.”

For his part, Parsons praised Hafley, defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington and the other defensive staffers as “great teachers” who have put him in position to play against the Lions — however much that ends up being.

“I think Hafley’s even surprised about some of the things that I said,” Parsons said. “I was like, ‘We can bring out some skills of mine out of the toolbox that I used to use.’

“I tell people, ‘All I know is go,’ so once I get an itch of competition …  like I see the basketball courts all around the building, I’m like, ‘Guys, who wants some? Who wants to just shoot some hoops real quick?’ That’s just me.

“So I know once I get out there, I’m just going to want to go. … At the same time, I do have to get healthy, I do have to do all those little things to make sure there’s a longevity piece in this. [The season] is 18 weeks. There are hopes for a long playoff run. So we have to think about that and making sure that everything is good to go.”

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