The Green Bay Packers opened the 2025 NFL season 2-0 on Thursday night with a 27-18 win over the Washington Commanders, and while the offense found its groove, the Packers’ defense was suffocating once again.
Through two weeks, Green Bay’s defense has shut down two of the top five scoring offenses from 2024.
The Packers defense took a big jump last season, and was expected to be good again this year. However, the trade with the Cowboys for former Penn State star Micah Parsons has put Green Bay’s defense on another level, and after the trade, Parsons is more motivated than ever.
Parsons Reveals Motivation Factor
Parsons grew to become one of the best edge rushers in the country during his two years at Penn State, and then played the first four years of his NFL career in Dallas; where he thought he’d found his home for a while.
However, Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones and Parsons couldn’t agree on a new contract for the four-time Pro-Bowler and it ended in the Cowboys trading Parsons to the Packers.
It was a tough goodbye for Parsons, as he grew close to many people during his four years in Dallas, but now he’s more motivated than ever to make an impact with his new team.
Micah Parsons in his first two games as a Packer:
🧀 90.2 pass rush grade
🧀 10 pressures
🧀 1.5 sacks
🧀 25.0% pass rush win rate pic.twitter.com/VaxleJBnnc— PFF (@PFF) September 12, 2025
“There’s nothing more motivating then when you find out that people you love don’t truly believe in you and they thought less of you,” Parsons told Kaylee Hartung of Amazon Prime Video.
Parsons has played limited snaps in his first two games as a Packer, but he’s already making his impact felt. The new Packers’ linebacker already has 1.5 sacks, four quarterback hits and a tackle for loss in just two games.
“THANK YOU JERRY!”
Packers fans chant for Micah Parsons 👀
(via @NFLonPrime)pic.twitter.com/HZKNWy92bz
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 12, 2025
Parsons played about 45 percent of the Packers’ defensive snaps against the Lions in week 1, and the plan was to play him over 50 percent of the time on Thursday night. Now, Green Bay will work on integrating Parsons more into its defense with the long layoff before next Sunday’s game, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The Packers defense has looked scary through two weeks, and the thought that it could only get better with more Parsons in the game is a frightening thought for opposing offenses.
