Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley believes that not only will Micah Parsons be ready for the 2026 season, but he’ll be back better than ever.
“If I were a betting man, I would bet that he comes back even better and probably breaks the sack record next year,” Hafley said Wednesday of Parsons, via The Athletic. “So I’m going to put that on Micah and myself, and you guys can put that out there.”
Parsons suffered a torn ACL in Week 15’s loss and will miss the balance of the season. The timing of the injury could impact the pass rusher’s availability to start the season. Those concerns didn’t faze Hafley.
“We’ll see when he comes back,” Hafley said. “Just wait until you guys see how hard he works to come back, how fast he probably comes back … give Micah adversity and watch what happens.”
Before the injury, Parsons led the Packers with 12.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss and 26 QB hits. The star pass rusher led the NFL with 83 QB pressures through 15 weeks, per Next Gen Stats.
The current NFL sack record sits at 22.5, shared between Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. Myles Garrett, with 21.5 sacks and three games remaining for the Cleveland Browns, could blast past that record, making it more difficult to reach.
Regardless of whether Parsons, who has five straight seasons with at least a dozen sacks, can come close to the record, even getting him back on the field early next season would be a boon for Green Bay.
For now, they’ll attempt a playoff push sans their star defender. The Packers have allowed a 101.4 opponent passer rating with Parsons off the field in 2025, per Next Gen Stats -- 89.1 opponent passer rating with Parsons on the field.
Starting with Saturday’s showdown in Chicago, with the NFC North lead on the line, Green Bay needs the rest of the defense to pick up for Parsons’ absence.
“Our best players are going to step up, and the guys who haven’t played a lot, that’s been our job all year, is to develop those guys,” Hafley said. “So in situations like this, they’re going to step up, and we’re going to play hard, and we’re going to coach hard, and we’re going to do everything we can to win. That’s my take on all this. This is press on full speed ahead, and we’re ready to go.”
The Week 16 matchup will be the latest Packers-Bears game by week all-time in which the winner will take the division lead (the previous latest was their Week 14, 2025 matchup).