Micah Parsons making history in first season with Packers as his sack totals climb

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Micah Parsons has pressured quarterbacks at a rate to rival any player in the NFL throughout his first season with the Green Bay Packers.

Now his sack totals are starting to reflect that.

Parsons enters Green Bay’s Sunday showdown against the NFC North-leading Chicago Bears (9-3) with six sacks during the Packers’ three-game win streak, bringing his season total to 12 1/2.

He’s the first player with at least 12 sacks in each of his first five seasons since at least 1982, when the NFL made sacks an official stat. Parsons remains focused on reaching his next milestone.

“How I can get to six?” Parsons said. “That’s the mindset. Once you do six, how do you get to seven? How do we keep improving? How do I continue to get better? Understanding how teams are going to come out and attack me and how do I say, ‘It don’t matter.’ “

That approach has Parsons doing everything the Packers (8-3-1) could have imagined when they landed him from Dallas for two first-round picks and three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Kenny Clark. The Packers gave Parsons a four-year, $188 million contract with $136 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history.

Parsons has responded by bothering quarterbacks no matter how opponents try to contain him. He leads the league with 70 quarterback pressures, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

“He’s a special, special football player,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I haven’t seen too many guys like him.”

While Parsons has been bothering quarterbacks consistently all season, it wasn’t necessarily apparent from his sack totals early on.

Parsons had 2 1/2 sacks through his first five games. He had a career-high three sacks in a 27-23 victory at Arizona on Oct. 19, then had just one over Green Bay’s next three games.

Sacks have come in bunches lately. He had 1 1/2 against the New York Giants, two against Minnesota and 2 1/2 at Detroit.

Parsons ranks third in the league in sacks, behind Cleveland’s Myles Garrett (19) and the New York Giants’ Brian Burns (13). He already has the highest single-season sack total for any Packer since Za’Darius Smith also had 12 1/2 in 2020. Tim Harris has the Packers’ single-season record with 19 1/2 sacks in 1989.

Measuring himself against the greatest players drives Parsons, who hates losing.

“I used to wrestle and I used to always break down crying when I lost these wrestling matches,” Parsons said. “My dad’s like, ‘It’s OK. You’re going to get another match.’ And I was like, ‘No, it’s not, Dad! You don’t understand.’ We work so hard. We have goals and dreams. If I’m going into this wrestling tournament, I want to be No. 1. I don’t want to be third place on the podium. I want to smile and look down at the rest.”

Parsons maintains that competitiveness even when he’s off the field. Parsons says the only time he’s a prima donna is when it comes to board games.

“I’ve got certain family members that don’t even want to play unless they’re on my team because they either might get kicked out or excluded from the rest of the activities for the week if they go against me,” Parsons said.

Parsons’ favorite board games include Scattergories, Codenames, Connect 4 and Taboo.

“I probably haven’t lost in Connect 4 in like five years,” Parsons said.

Parsons draws inspiration from athletes in other sports such as basketball players Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett and boxer Andre Ward. At least one sport apparently remains a mystery to him.

Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley brought up the idea of Lambeau Field playing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” when Green Bay’s defense takes the field late in games, just as the New York Yankees did for Hall of Fame reliever Mariano Rivera.

Hafley said the parallel works because both Parsons and Rivera are outstanding closers. Parsons has eight sacks in the fourth quarter or overtime, the most of any NFL player this season.

“(Rivera) walked out of the bullpen, and everybody started screaming and going crazy, and you knew the game was over,” Hafley said. “Whether it was three outs or one out or whatever it was, he was going to put them down.”

When Hafley brought up the idea to Parsons, the star pass rusher needed a history lesson on Rivera.

“Honestly, the only person I knew was the greatest closer was Iron Mike (Tyson),” Parsons said. “Baseball was never really my thing.”

Parsons has warmed up to the idea. He likes being seen as an elite closer because he prides himself on staying strong and being ready to make one more play at the end of games.

“You’ve got to trick yourself to like, ‘I’ve got one more,’” Parsons said. “And I think that’s kind of what life’s about, the consistent growth to like, ‘I got one more in me. I can keep going one more.’”

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