It’s been evident over the last nine games, the Green Bay Packers defense just isn’t the same without star edge-rusher Micah Parsons.
The 27-year-old All-Pro tore his ACL in Week 15 last season. Though Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL on the same day and he returned to play in Week 1, Parsons’ recovery has been much more of a slow burn.
Most Packers fans are presumably disappointed their best defensive player still hasn’t stepped foot on the field this season. But they may find some optimism in what Parsons said about his recovery prior to Green Bay’s Week 6 matchup with the Dallas Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
Micah Parsons Drops Encouraging Injury Update
Hours before the Packers-Cowboys “SNF” matchup, Parsons spoke with NBC Sports sideline reporter Melissa Stark about his injury situation.
The Penn State alum touched on what the hold up is with his return to the field while also providing a glimmer of hope for frustrated Packers fans.
“I talked to him on the field before the game and he told me he feels great coming off his ACL surgery,” Stark said during the broadcast. “He’s just waiting for the doctors to clear him. It takes time getting back into football shape.
“He said he and the doctors are in full agreement on his timeline and there have been no setbacks. I asked what that timeline is — he didn’t want to give a specific date, just said he plans to be back sooner rather than later.”
If you take Parsons at his word, his return doesn’t seem like it’ll take too much longer.
Green Bay has a key divisional matchup against the Detroit Lions next week. Given how chippy those games tend to get, it wouldn’t be surprising if Parsons was held out of that game just to be safe and he targeted a return either the following week against the Carolina Panthers or in Week 9 against the New England Patriots on Nov. 8.
Parsons Likely to make a November Return
What Parsons told Stark seems to line up with what The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones reported this weekend about what he’s heard on Parsons’ potential return.
“A league source tells me Parsons might not return until Week 9, against the Patriots on Nov. 8,” Jones wrote. “The Packers did not open his practice window this week to begin his return. In Week 7, Green Bay plays the Detroit Lions before hosting the Panthers on “Thursday Night Football”; believing Parsons needs more than a week to ramp up, the short-week turnaround would be difficult to pull off.”
While waiting two more weeks to get Parsons back on the field may be frustrating, the good news is Parsons isn’t being held out because there’s an issue with his ACL recovery. During a recent episode of his “The Edge with Micah Parsons” podcast, the Packers star admitted that he could play right now if he had to.
“The biggest thing that people worried about with me, they’re like, ‘Man, why ain’t he back yet?’” Parsons said. “”If the Super Bowl was this week, I’m playing in the Super Bowl. But it’s just about me making sure I have all the small things fixed first.
“… [Doctors] were just like, ‘We’re just gonna make sure everything is right before [you return].’ Because everyone knows, it’s like, what’s the point of getting me back for four weeks, and then next thing you know, my groin is bothering me and now I have a core muscle [injury], now I’m missing [time]?”
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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