New Packers Star Micah Parsons Has This In Common With Green Bay Legend Reggie White

Just two players in NFL history have posted 12 sacks, or more, in each of their first four seasons.

The first was Reggie White, one of the finest defensive ends in league history who helped lead the Green Bay Packers to the 1996 Super Bowl.

The second is standout edge rusher Micah Parsons, who was traded to the Packers Thursday.

Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst traded two first round draft picks and veteran defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas for the 26-year-old Parsons. Green Bay is also giving Parsons a new four-year, $188 million contract with $120 million guaranteed.

That deal makes Parsons the highest-paid non quarterback in NFL history.

“Players make impacts. There’s no doubt,” Gutekunst said on Wednesday. “You win and lose games because of players, right? These are the guys that do it. So, certainly, players make impacts. You’re never one player away, right? I never believed that. But good players make impacts.”

Parsons has made an enormous impact since entering the league as the 12^th pick of the 2021 draft.

Parsons joined White as the only players in league history with at least 12 sacks in each of his first four seasons. Parsons has 52.5 sacks in his career, as well as nine forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, 172 tackles and nine passes defensed.

Parsons has been named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons. He was also the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021, a first-team all-Pro selection in 2021 and 2022, and a second-team all-Pro in 2023.

Parsons missed four games in 2024 due to injury, but was still named to the Pro Bowl.

Gutekunst and the Packers were in the running for Khalil Mack in 2018, before the star defensive end was traded to Chicago. This time, the Packers didn’t finish as bridesmaids.

“I think you know, you have to look at everything,” Gutekunst said. “Any opportunity to help your football team you have to like look at and discuss as a group and we do that all the time.

“And so you just kind of, I think you weigh everything, and you weigh what is in the moment and what is in the future as well.”

The addition of Parsons could take Green Bay’s defense from good to great.

The Packers finished sixth in total defense last season and sixth in points allowed. Green Bay also finished seventh in rushing defense and was fourth in forced turnovers with 31.

The addition of a game-wrecker like Parsons could make the Packers’ defense one of football’s best.

“He’s a hell of a player, but I ain’t going to speak on that,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said one day before the trade was made. “That ain’t for me to speak on.

“He’s a hell of a player, and obviously I know him. He’s a good person, good dude, but yeah.”

The Packers are banking on being elite with Parsons, which would mean their first round draft picks would come late in the round.

Clark enjoyed a stellar nine-year career in Green Bay and will be a Packers Hall of Famer one day.

Clark ranks 10th on the Packers’ all-time sack list with 35.0, just 1.0 behind ninth place Tony Bennett (36.0). Clark also has five career postseason sacks, which ranks fourth in team history and No. 8 in the NFL from 2019-‘24.

Clark was a three-time Pro Bowler who had arguably his best season in 2023, when he had 7.5 sacks, 16 quarterback hits, two forced fumbles and three passes defensed.

Clark played most of the 2024 campaign with a right foot injury, though, that slowed him throughout and needed to be surgically repaired in January.

Clark’s 37 tackles in 2024 were his fewest since his rookie season in 2016, when he started just two games. His one sack and five quarterback hits were also his fewest since 2016, and he finished with just four tackles for loss.

In the last three decades, the Packers have made just two other acquisitions that rival their trade for Parsons.

In the spring of 1993, Green Bay signed White to a four-year, $17 million contract to leave Philadelphia. That deal made White the NFL’s third-highest paid player at the time.

By the time the deal expired, most would agree that White was a bargain.

White helped lead the Packers to a Super Bowl championship in 1996, their first in 29 years. And in six seasons with Green Bay, White posted 68.5 sacks and made six consecutive Pro Bowls.

“That’s what changed the football fortunes of this franchise. It was huge,” former Packers president Bob Harlan said of signing White. “He sent a message to the rest of the NFL that Green Bay was a great place to play.”

Then in April, 2006, the Packers signed free agent cornerback Charles Woodson to a seven-year, $52 million deal.

Woodson spent seven years in Green Bay, helped the Packers win the Super Bowl in 2010 and was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2009. Woodson had 38 of his 65 career interceptions as a Packer, brought nine of those back for touchdowns, had 11.5 sacks and had a remarkable 99 passes defensed.

Today, both White and Woodson are in the Hall of Fame

“It could not have worked out any better,” Woodson said.

The Packers are hoping things work out just as well with Parsons.

“Any time there’s players of that caliber that you can acquire, you’re trying to,” Gutekunst said. “But this is the ultimate team game. I’ve always believed that. Some of the best teams we’ve ever seen didn’t have a ton of stars on it, right?

“So, it’s really about how those units operate together. So, 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.”