The Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl hopes hinge on one of the NFL's most explosive edge rushers. After a season-ending injury derailed 2025, Micah Parsons returns to lead a high-stakes championship pursuit.
We're officially 1 day away from the start of the 2026 NFL season for the Green Bay Packers. Whether you're ready or not, football season is here.
The Packers kick off their 2026 season against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, Sept. 13, from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Talk about pressure. The Vikings are certainly in a transitional place as a franchise, but getting going against an NFC North foe ratchets up the intensity of this season from the get-go.
It's a big season for the Packers. There's a belief that they're in a Super Bowl window right now, which means every single game is important. That means the intensity will be there in Week 2 at MetLife Stadium against the New York Jets and it will certainly be there in Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons, when the Packers will play at Lambeau Field for the first time in 2026.
There's going to be a lot of proverbial ink spilled on this 2026 season and we here at PackersRoundtable hope that you spend as much time as possible with us talking about the ins and outs and ups and downs of the Packers.
As we prepare for the 2026 season, though, we're going to kick things off with a rankings series looking at the Top 50 Packers heading into the 2025 season.
At No. 1 we have EDGE Micah Parsons
Ranking the Top 50 Packers Heading Into 2026: No. 1, Micah Parsons
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect.The loose equation for these rankings has been talent + importance = ranking, and with that in mind, it's hard to argue that anyone other than Micah Parsons should be No. 1 on this list.
Let's talk about talent. Since entering the NFL as the 12th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, Parsons has been the most explosive pass-rusher in the world not named Myles Garrett.
The Packers thought enough about him to trade two first-round picks and franchise stalwart Kenny Clark to the Cowboys ahead of the 2025 season just for the privilege of giving Parsons a four-year, $186 million deal.
Now let's talk about importance. Last season, the Packers were 9-3-1 with Parsons in the lineup and they looked like one of the top Super Bowl contenders in the NFC. He tore his ACL on December 14 against the Denver Broncos and the Pack didn't win again.
From 9-3-1 with Parsons to 0-5 without him. He's pretty darn important.
In five NFL seasons, Parsons has notched 297 tackles (191 solo), 65 sacks, 139 quarterback hits, 75 tackles for loss, 11 forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries (one for a touchdown), and 10 passes defended. He's a three-time first-team All-Pro.
2025 Synopsis:
In 14 games, Parsons tallied 41 tackles (19 solo), 12.5 sacks, 27 quarterback hits, 12 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and one pass defended. He was a Pro Bowler, a first-team All-Pro and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Notable Quotables:
"People are worried about the knee; they should be worried about how I'm going to play when I get back. The anger, the frustration, the things that I'm going to have to let out because of how long it's been since I played. So I think that's what people should really worry about. Like, how great is Micah going to be when he gets back? Not about when I get back, because that's the short term. It's about how great I'm going to be, how I can help my teammates, and how far we're going to go into a playoff run." - Micah Parsons
Projected Role in 2026:
This is a tough one because we don't yet know when Parsons is going to come back. When he comes back, will he be able to quickly regain the form we saw in 2025? He's an athletic marvel and a super competitor so the odds are in his and the Packers' favor, but we're in "wait and see" mode until he does actually step foot back on the field.
A solid projection is a Week 6 return, just in time for the Cowboys.
Previous Rankings:
