GREEN BAY — “You’re never one player away, right?” Brian Gutekunst said that afternoon, roughly 24 hours before he would make what could turn out to be one of the biggest trades in the Green Bay Packers’ storied history. “I never believed that.”

When the Green Bay Packers general manager said that in front of a roomful of reporters on Aug. 27 at roughly 2:15 in the afternoon, three-time All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons was not — officially, anyway — on his team’s roster.

Behind the scenes, of course, Gutekunst and the Packers had reached an agreement with the Dallas Cowboys and owner/general manager Jerry Jones on the trade compensation to bring Parsons to Titletown: The Packers’ 2026 and 2027 first-round draft picks, plus three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

Packers director of football operations Russ Ball, the team’s chief contract negotiator, and Parsons’ agent, David Mulugheta, were still hammering out the details of the four-year, $188 million extension the Packers would be giving Parsons, but for all intents and purposes, Parsons was going to be a Packer.

“But,” Gutekunst continued, finishing his thought, “good players make impacts. So anytime there’s players of that caliber, that you can acquire, you’re trying to [get him].

“But, this is the ultimate team game. I’ve always believed that. And some of the best teams we’ve ever seen, you didn’t have a ton of stars on it, right? So it’s really about how those units operate together.

“You can’t win without good players, but they’ve got to work together. It doesn’t matter how many good players you have. If they’re not working together, it won’t matter.”

Which brings us to Sunday’s regular-season opener between the Packers and the two-time defending NFC North-champion Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field — and Parsons’ highly anticipated debut with his new team.

As expected, Parsons is set to play in the game, despite only four practices (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and only limited reps in each of those sessions.

Although listed as questionable on the team’s official injury report because of a back injury, Parsons continued treatments that began in Dallas to treat the issue — it was diagnosed as a sprain of the L4/L5 facet joint in his back — and the façade of him possibly not playing never made sense.

“They didn’t give up what they gave up for me,” Parsons said the day he passed his physical and signed his new contract, making the trade official, “for me to sit on the sidelines.”

How much he’ll play is unclear, although Parsons and his coaches repeatedly suggested he’d be on a pitch count. Parsons said he had learned roughly 80% of the defensive playbook at week’s end — not out of the realm of possibility since defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley marveled at his high football IQ — but the Packers are likely to “unleash” (Parsons’ word) him as just a situational pass rusher on third downs/obvious passing downs and gradually build his snap count each week.

“There’s a couple [packages] they want to get me in,” Parsons revealed on Thursday. “But we’re just taking it one week at a time, just getting me in where they feel I can play.”

And when he does play, it won’t just be his own production that makes a difference —even though he’s registered 52.5 sacks in his first four seasons (sixth-most in NFL history) — but also how he affects what others around him can do.

For instance, while Parsons has never had fewer than 12 sacks in a season, his new running mate, Rashan Gary, has yet to have a double-digit sack season as he enters Year 7 in the NFL.

“Shoot, his play speaks for itself. The name speaks for itself,” Gary said. “I feel like the sky’s the limit for him. I feel like the sky’s the limit for our defensive line group. Just can’t wait to see him go.”

Head coach Matt LaFleur also acknowledged that, after Hafley arrived last season planning on rushing four and dropping seven into coverage, the front’s pass-rushing shortcomings forced Hafley to get creative.

Now, the hope is that a front four comprised of Parsons, Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness and Rashan Gary will be able to attack opposing quarterbacks without help from elsewhere — and defenders in coverage won’t have to cover for quite as long because the pass rush will be getting home.

“It just gives us a lot of flexibility with what we want to do. And I think Haf and our staff have done a great job of [adjusting],” LaFleur said. “You come in with the vision — ‘Hey, we’re going to get after them with our front four, we’re going to play coverage’ —  and then I loved the evolution,”

And, lest we forget, the move also sent a very clear message that the team’s leadership believes the Packers are poised to win now, and the impact of that message of belief in the locker room cannot be overstated.

“Bringing in a player like Micah just shows what Gutey’s thinking [about] the team we have this year and what we’re getting prepared for,” quarterback Jordan Love said. ‘Obviously he always says he’s trying to put the best team out there and bring in the best guys as possible to make us the best team, but adding a player like that to a defense who I already thought was really good, I’m just excited to see it.”

All of which begs the question: If the addition of one player allows you to play your defense the way it was designed instead of conjuring up exotic blitzes and simulated pressures, if that one player elevates the play of the guys around him and the confidence throughout the locker room, and you wind up in Santa Clara, Calif., in February playing in Super Bowl LX … doesn’t that mean you probably were one player away — and you got him in Parsons?

“I [still] don’t believe in that,” Gutekunst said after the trade happened. “Again, I do think this guy is going to add to our football team and I think he’s certainly going to help us win football games.

“I just don’t really believe one player puts you over the top, so to speak. I’ve never believed in that. The biggest thing is going to be these guys coming together and them putting their individual goals aside and deciding we want to win.

“This move was not just for this season. It was for multiple seasons. I felt great about our roster before this happened. I think we have a very good team. I think they got a long way to go to become the kind of team we want to be. But I think that potential is there. I think adding Micah is one of those things that can help that.

“Again, I’m excited for the season. But there’s a lot of work ahead of us. And we’ll see where it goes.”

​COPYRIGHT 2025 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.