The Packers had just erased a 28-14 fourth-quarter deficit and defeated the Cowboys 31-28 in overtime at Lambeau Field. It was Week 10 of the 2022 NFL season and then-Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers approached a second-year player from the other sideline after the game.
“He was like, ‘I want to trade jerseys with you,’” now-Packers defensive end Micah Parsons recalled recently. “And I’m like, ‘The GOAT, Rodgers, wants to trade jerseys with me?’”
Parsons said that at the time, he thought Rodgers was messing with him.
Parsons had one tackle for loss but no quarterback hits or sacks and just one pressure, according to Pro Football Focus, on an afternoon when he said he was pretty sick. Packers rookie wide receiver Christian Watson caught four passes for 107 yards and three touchdowns in his breakout game, including two in the fourth quarter, to help send Parsons and the Cowboys to 6-3 while the Packers improved to 4-6. But Rodgers, then in his 18th season and coming off back-to-back NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021, marveled at the then-23-year-old Parsons’ ability days before the matchup.
“He’s got a lot of things that you just can’t coach,” Rodgers said then. “There are multiple high-effort plays by him. I remember watching a little bit of the ‘Hard Knocks’ that they had, and I liked his disposition. I liked how coachable that he was and (you) knew he was going to be a player just by the way they were talking about him and the stuff you saw in practice. He is definitely a one-of-one in this league. I don’t know if there’s anybody who’s doing as many things as they’re asking him to do.”
Parsons was in the midst of a second consecutive first-team All-Pro season to start his career, so he didn’t exactly need affirmation that he was talented. Rodgers gave it to him, though, whether intentional or not, and Parsons is thankful for the gesture to this day, even if he’s since added a couple more All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors and the title of highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
“To me, it’s a great sign of respect,” Parsons said last Sunday. “Just the type of guy he is, that he could recognize such a young player in the league, so I have nothing but respect for him and he’s become one of my favorite players just because of that moment … The football side, I’m ready to get my rematch, but the personal side, I appreciate ‘Rodg’ for that because that gave me a boost of confidence. He just said ‘keep going’ and how much he believed in me, so that was big. He didn’t have to do that.”
Parsons is coming off the first three-sack game of his career in a 27-23 comeback win over the Cardinals that improved the Packers to 4-1-1. He was discussing Rodgers in the visitors’ locker room at State Farm Stadium because this coming weekend, Parsons leads Green Bay’s defense into Pittsburgh to face Rodgers and the Steelers (4-2) in prime time. The headline for Sunday night’s game is arguably the best player in Packers franchise history facing the team for which he played 18 years (from 2005-2022) for the first time. But a fascinating sub-plot is perhaps the NFL’s best defensive player trying to sack one of the most talented quarterbacks ever for the first time — even if that green and gold No. 12 jersey stands out in Parsons’ man cave to this day.
“He’s 1-0 against me for sure,” Parsons said. “I never got him either. I think I came down to Lambeau my second year and he came back and won … I’m excited to play him. Rodgers, he’s one of my favorite quarterbacks of all time.”
Parsons and Rodgers are two of the league’s biggest names and both are entering Sunday’s matchup playing well at 15 years apart. Parsons not only ranks tied for sixth in the NFL with 5.5 sacks, but also is the only player in the league with a pressure rate of at least 20 percent and a double-team rate of at least 20 percent, according to NFL Senior Researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno.
A career day for uno pic.twitter.com/X5RkvclcNx
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Rodgers is coming off a game in which he completed 23-of-34 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions in a 33-31 loss to the Bengals. There were moments in that game last Thursday night when Rodgers turned back the clock to show everyone he’s still got it despite being the league’s oldest player at 41. On the season, Rodgers ranks 12th in EPA per dropback and 10th in passer rating, according to TruMedia, with 14 touchdown passes and five interceptions to his name. He also has the third-quickest average release time among quarterbacks (2.63 seconds), according to Next Gen Stats, and is sure to deploy a similar strategy to neutralize Parsons, much like quarterbacks facing the Packers before him have.
Despite the intrigue of Rodgers playing his former team, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur shot down that storyline on Monday.
“We’re playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who happen to have Aaron Rodgers,” LaFleur said. “It’s as simple as that. That is for you guys to talk about. Granted, I mean, we’ve got a lot of love and respect for Aaron. What he’s done here, I mean, he’s a Hall of Famer. And I know our past together, we had a lot of great moments, but this game is not about that. It’s about going to Pittsburgh. Sunday Night Football. Our guys will be jacked up. Their guys will be jacked up. It’s about the Green Bay Packers versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that’s for you guys to talk about all those other storylines.”
Those storylines will surely be discussed, for anyone interested, when Rodgers speaks with Packers reporters on a Zoom call Thursday afternoon.