Green Bay Packers star pass-rusher Micah Parsons' season-ending ACL tear understandably sent shockwaves across the NFL. Similar to the blockbuster trade that brought him to Green Bay this past offseason, yet different in the most agonizing of ways.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how drastically the Packers' Super Bowl LX odds shifted overnight after the catastrophic Parsons news. He's one of the best and most impactful players in football, regardless of position.
However, if it wasn't already, former league MVP Cam Newton hereby declared the Parsons-less Packers' 2025 campaign over.
Former NFL MVP Cam Newton is all the way out on Packers after Micah Parsons injury
Replacing Parsons is anything but simple, let alone doing so by committee. He's a one-man wrecking crew and has been instrumental to the Packers' success in his inaugural campaign with the club. Newton echoed this sentiment during a recent appearance on ESPN's First Take, albeit much more emphatically.
"Any time you have a dominant force, and I mean dominant force in a guy like Micah Parsons, you can't replace that. I mean, look at [his former squad, the Dallas Cowboys]; we just got finished talking about a team that had this individual on their roster," Newton said. "It's the same thing for Green Bay. ... Unfortunately, I don't have any faith without a Micah Parsons on [the Packers]."
Newton added that Parsons "presents so [many] problems" for opponents, and how not having to game plan for the perennial All-Pro makes the Packers vulnerable. No lie detected there, as folks in Green Bay are well aware of and devastated by.
Nevertheless, the show goes on. Barring a full-blown late-year collapse, the Packers are playoff-bound. They must figure out how to move forward without Parsons, no matter how pessimistic Newton (and presumably fans) feel.
Parsons faces a long recovery from his first major injury as a pro. He'll likely be out "at least" nine months, putting his status for Week 1 of 2026 in jeopardy.
The loss of Parsons truly cannot be overstated. Andy Herman of Packer Report contemplated whether the day he went down was the worst in the franchise's history over the past decade. That alone should speak to the severity of the matter.