Micah Parsons Has Made the Packers the NFC's Team to Beat, With JP Acosta

0:00Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Sheil Kapadia here with JP Acosta from CBS Sports. Great to have him here. You can listen to him on the Pushing the Pile podcast. We just got finished watching Packers Commander. So we're going to talk about that game. And then at the end of the show, I will give you my Ringer 107 picks. JP, before we dive into the game, I got to start the show with this question. If you are a Dallas Cowboys fan who happened to be watching Thursday Night Football and Micah Parsons, what is going through your head right now before you go to bed? So many negative things about Jerry Jones.

0:38Just far too many negative things. It is the type of things that you got to go and pray and ask for forgiveness for. It's just all the worst things. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as I was watching that game. If I was watching that game, I would just be thinking, I can't believe the whole game was like a tribute to Micah Parsons, which we're going to get into here. So let's take a quick break. Let's get into it. Packers looked great. Commanders, are we worried at all? We'll get into all the storylines from this game when we come back. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by FanDuel and the NFL is officially back.

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3:27All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right, JP, I'm going to get started. My big takeaway, because you can really go in a number of different directions with the Packers here. but I'm going with the obvious. And that's that Micah Parsons has already transformed the Green Bay Packers. It's been two weeks. They were already a very good team. Like you could have picked the Packers to go to the Super Bowl before they got Micah Parsons and no one would have said you were crazy. But if you were watching that game and it didn't, if you didn't think it felt different than it's felt for the Packers the last couple of years, I don't know what you're watching because Parsons, part-time player right now, team high eight pressures.

4:05The numbers almost don't even matter. Just the experience of watching that game and how differently the commanders had to play and how the Packers could just rush for play zone coverage, take away the explosive plays. And they knew their pass rush was going to get home because of Micah Parsons. It's completely changed the way I look at that team. And I think the way we've looked at that team over the past few years. We say it a lot, but a rising tide lifts all boats. And Micah Parsons is the biggest rising tide to hit Green Bay in a very long time. It is something, it's just something different about watching him and watching how it affects the entire defense.

4:40There was a play during the game where he's taking on, I think, like a triple team and still forces Jayden Daniels out of the pocket, forcing incompletion. And like you said, it allows Jeff Halfley, the coordinator, to be so much more versatile with his coverages, knowing that you don't have to devote so many bodies to pass rush. But when you really turn it on, when you really have Micah Parsons lined up in different spots, Edger and Cooper, Quay Walker, his blitzers. There were so many unblocked pressures today for Washington because you have to account for number one on the edge. You have to send people at him.

5:14And you can tell how tight the commanders were every time they went to a drop-back situation to the point where they're using Debo Samuel to chip. Austin Eckler was a chip guy. They were just throwing bodies at him just to try and slow him down so Jay Nails gets some time to throw the ball. And if you're dictating pass protection like that, you've already won. Yeah, it's the old force multiplier jargon that we use when we talk about football, but it's spot on. Like you said, I mean, you look at the other guys, the Lucas Van Ness, Rashawn, Gary, Devontae, all the guys, the linebackers, like you mentioned, what Jeff Halfley, the defensive coordinator, can do now with this guy.

5:51And again, he's a part-time player right now. Like, I don't even know how many snaps he played tonight, but there were a lot of sideline shots of Micah Parsons and then him coming in on third down or him, you know, rotating in on first down there as he gets healthy and as he gets acclimated. And so it just completely changed kind of the ceiling, I think. I shouldn't even say ceiling because I thought they could have been a Super Bowl team, but just the ways they can win now, you know, offensively, we'll talk about you have a great play caller, you have a very good head coach, you have a quarterback who looks healthy and is playing well.

6:23But now defensively, like if you get in a slugfest, you know, in a playoff game or just the formula we're talking about, this is a formula that has worked for many Super Bowl teams where they say, hey, let's play. So I mean, think of the Eagles against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl last year. What was the game plan? That rematch is coming up this weekend. It was zone coverage on almost every single down, rush for win with the pass rush. And then Vic Fangio, who likes a lot of wrinkles, he's like, I'm not overthinking this. If every defensive coordinator, if they can play that way, that's kind of how they want to play.

6:55And it also ties so well into what Jeff Halfley has done with the coverage. Outside of Micah Parsons, the Packers downfield coverage really stood out. Those guys are on a string communicating with each other so well. There are multiple times where they're spinning from single high into an inverted Tampa 2 with Xavier McKinney as sort of that middle robber guy. And every time, Jay and Daniels has to hold on to the ball. And what that does is if you're speeding up the process up front with Micah Parsons and all the pass rush games, but can still spin inverted Tampa twos on third downs, good luck because you're thinking so quickly about the pass coverage.

7:34But then Micah Parsons is moving at a different speed than everybody else. And they have created so much of the problem for opposing offenses that you just cannot get into third and you can't get into obvious passing situations. I don't remember like an open wide receiver for the commanders all night. I'm with you. I mean, it was just like, yeah, they were like, he was trying to take some shots downfield. You know, he was, he knew at times, like you said, I got to get rid of the football or I'm going to get crushed here. He took some hits. He didn't really, scrambling wasn't really available to him because that's a really fast Packers defense.

8:09And I'm with you. Keyshawn Nixon, Valentine, Hobbs. Those guys were all over those commanders wide receivers. I think at one point in the fourth quarter, 30 % of Jaden Daniels' throws were into tight windows compared to 7 % for Jordan Love. So just a very impressive defensive performance for the Packers. Commanders had 230 yards of offense, 15 first downs. Both of those are the lowest totals in any game that Jaden Daniels has started in one plus year in the NFL. Insane. I was trying to figure out what other things really could help kind of categorize and like talk about this game. And something that I saw was on early downs, the commander's early down runs had a 20 % success rate.

8:55That's not going to win. You're not going to win a lot of games. And it's, again, it's another testament to how Micah Parsons affects this team, but also how Jeff Halfley has sort of created this defense where they're able to steal a lot of gaps in the run game, despite not being very big. I mean, Devontae Wyatt is maybe around 300. Colby Wooden's more of a 290, 295 guy Carl Brooks is undersized Their biggest guy, I think, is Nazir Stackhouse And he barely plays So they're able to spin into gaps Using stunts and loops And they were able to frustrate the commander's run game For the entire game And once you can't run the ball against this team They can just pin their ears back And that's where you lose Yeah, and that's been a hard run game to stop I mean, you got Jaden Daniels involved They're creative in what they do and they've had a very good run game really since day one with Jaden Daniels.

9:47So you're right. They got him. And even those drives where they scored, it felt like, all right, they got to convert this fourth down. They got to get a penalty or this third down. So great job by the Packers defense there. The other next thing I want to talk about with Green Bay, JP, is Matt LaFleur. And just like, I feel like, let me ask you before I give up. I mean, what is your take on Matt LaFleur? Like, is he just in the upper, upper echelon for you? Do you think he's underrated, overrated, pretty boy, yelling at his team? I mean, what's your Matt LaFleur take here? I hate to be not a hot take artist, but I think he's properly rated as one of the better coaches in the league.

10:27The way that he has designed this offense and continued to build upon the things that he has done in the offense. They kept all the Malik Willis, like, spinner stuff in the run game that they ran when Jordan Love was hurt. They kept all that in the, in the playbook. And now you have a guy, Jordan Love, who was able to make every throw. But what stood out today was they were just opening up windows using motion. And the way that they used that jet motion to just widen the nickel defender and just throw a seam right behind them. And it really gave Washington's second-level defenders a lot of problems.

11:00Bobby Wagner just was running around all over the place trying to put out fires everywhere. And that's a testament to Matt LaFleur's offensive design. He's able to open up windows using motion and formations. And that's when you get those guys, when you get Tucker Craft the ball after the catch, he is a monster with the ball in his hands. You're able to kind of elevate this entire offense with the way that you're designing plays. So Matt LaFleur is one of the better floor raisers in the NFL with his play calling. Tucker Craft, you mentioned. I got to get this on the record, JP, because I handed off one of my fantasy teams to my daughter.

11:37She's in eighth grade this year and she wanted to do it. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm kind of tired of managing multiple teams. Brock Bowers and Tucker Craft on the team. So she comes out. What do I do? I got to set my lineup. She says, Bauer's going to play. I said, I don't know, but he plays at 10 o 'clock Eastern on Monday night. So you're not going to know. Like they literally haven't even practiced yet. So I said, I think you should just start Tucker Craft. You might get burned if Bowers plays. But then Tucker, I mean, father of the year, JP. I'm giving it to myself, right? Oh, yeah. We got to get you a little father of the year mug.

12:09We got to get the award for you. I felt good because I would be hearing about it. If Tucker Craft went two catches for 19 yards, your boy would be hearing about that for a long time. But no, I love what you said about LeFleur scheming up those explosive plays and the way he did it. I mean, he had the commanders in a blender. I mean, from like the first series, there were just guys wide open and going a bunch of different guys. I mean, at times it almost felt, you know, when Ben Johnson last year felt like he would get bored sometimes and just be like when they're giving those Savion Williams, you know, manufactured touches.

12:42And I'm like, all right, LaFleur is just like, let me empty out the whole bag right now. We practice these. We might as well go with it. So I even felt like they didn't play a perfect game. They've left plays on the field. That could have been 35, 40 points. But yeah, I just thought he did an awesome job. His winning percentage is 12th in NFL history, which I don't even know if people realize is better than Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh. Now, he's never won that Super Bowl, but he just consistently wins games year after year. So impressed with Matt LaFleur. And they were able to do this offensively without Zach Tom and Aaron Banks.

13:18And there was just the weird penalties stopped them from scoring 40 points. It's a great point because I'm looking at, you know, all the games this weekend and it's like, this team has multiple O-line injuries. And there are certain teams when that happens, you're like, this is going to sink them. I'm like, I think their offense is going to stink, you know, is going to get torpedoed. But there are other teams and it's almost like a differentiating factor for some of these teams. You know, like the Eagles, I feel like they can withstand it. The Packers, they can withstand it. Lions, we'll see. Past versions of the Lions, I felt like they could withstand it.

13:49That you have a couple of those injuries, but you trust the coaching. You trust the depth. You trust that they'll scheme around it and won't make those guys do too much. But you're right. I mean, it came up early in the game that they're down two offensive linemen. But then as you're watching the game, you kind of wouldn't even know that that was the case. So yeah, they did a terrific job there. All right, let's take a break. I want to come back. We've barely talked about the quarterback. I want to talk about the quarterback for the Packers and then get your take on where you are with the Commanders.

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15:35All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. Jordan Luff, 19 for 31, 292 yards and two touchdowns. JP, he is, you know, when we all like to look at our charts, average depth to target, who's throwing down him. And we're all sad because we see Patrick Mahomes at six and whoever else. and we're like, no, let these guys show off their talents. Jordan Love is here to save us because his average pass went 14 yards downfield and he's never seen a downfield opportunity that he doesn't want to take advantage of. Jordan Love is the perfect quarterback for people who think that like the peak of quarterbacking happened in like the mid 2010s, like early 2010s with Brady and like Peyton Manning.

16:19He's always throwing the ball downfield and I respect that so much and I respect the offense for being built around his aggression, throwing the ball downfield. And I think that's something that Matt LeFleur doesn't get a lot of credit for. It's sort of morphing this offense from being with Aaron Rodgers so much of a point and shoot, like I'm not gonna call it dink and dunk, but it was uber efficient through Aaron Rodgers just kind of being a supercomputer at quarterback. Jordan Love is still making steps towards that. And I've actually thought he's improved in his pre-snap and post-snap and sort of diagnosing coverages.

16:53But what he really does is LaFleur has given him the full, like, look, man, if it's not there, just throw it downfield. Because you have the arm and you're able to make other throws that a lot of guys can't make. So this game, I think, had a couple of just weird misses. Like the opening drive miss on fourth down, I think he was just laid on. But outside of that, I mean, you can tell that he's got full control of this offense in another year. and I'm really excited to see how he continues to grow. Yeah, that fourth down, there was a Matthew Golden deep shot where it looks like he just missed on that.

17:28His best throw might have been the one that got called back to Jaden Reed. I think it was the first possession where Jaden Reed unfortunately got injured and the Packers had a holding penalty, but that was like a sick throw into a small space on the right side there in the end zone. So yeah, I've been a Jordan Love fan for years now. People get on me, I hype him up too much and you overrate him. I'm like, I just love the style of play, to your point. I love that he's looking for those explosives. And tonight, a lot of them were schemed up. And then, like you said, he's taking shots regardless.

17:58There were two plays I loved from Jordan Love in this game. One of them, first half, a scramble, which I'll give credit to our friend here at the Ringer. Deontay Lee was the first guy, I remember pointing this out last year, I think it was. He's just like, Jordan Love never scrambles and it holds him back. And I'm like, you're right. Jordan Love Net never does scramble. Why doesn't he scramble? And so that was great to see. I don't know if he needs to lower the shoulder or not, but there was a play in the first half. He takes off, goes down the right side, picks up a first down with the scramble.

18:30And then in the second half, not the same thing, but he felt some pressure, creation mode, rolled out to his right. It was a third down. It was a tight game at that point, 17-10, and he finds Tucker Craft. So I feel like he's got that creation mode in him. He doesn't always turn to it. And even simple things like, hey, man, you can you could run and pick up eight yards here. Other quarterbacks are doing it. I really like to see that. I like to see it, too. And it's again, it's unlocking another aspect of his game that can really help take it to another level and help keep the offense as efficient as it is.

19:02Because of how far he throws the ball downfield, every opposing defense is going to go. Oh, my gosh, we got to get downfield to cover and make sure we have enough bodies. 25, 30 yards downfield, if you don't have it, you can just scramble and take the easy yards yourself. That is basically another version of a check down in the offense outside of just their run game being their version of a check down. So I think Jordan Love adding that to his game is going to be huge. And just the throw to Malik Heath where he kind of just like, he literally got like toe tapped it was insane. Just one of the most incredible catches that was probably like, there's been a lot of insane catches.

19:43That has been one of my favorites of the year. But man, just the ability to put the ball exactly where it needs it to be. Like you said, the touchdown to Reed that got called back was insane. But he is growing and becoming a quarterback that I think we all hoped he could have been, which is like an upper echelon guy who can elevate everybody else around him. I love the Heath call-outs. My favorite catches are the ones where you watch live and you go, no chance, he's not in. And then they show the replay and they show the toes and you get to go crazy, you know, watching on TV like, oh my gosh, how did he get those two feet in?

20:17So yeah, that's what Heath did on that play. Supporting cast did a nice job today for the Packers. That's been a popular topic for years and rightfully so, but they came through for Jordan Love in this game. So let's zoom out. Packers, and it's only week two, but just like NFC contenders, is it, you know, again, It's way too early to be discussing this, but we're doing a podcast. What do you want from me? Is it in your head? Is it like Packers and Eagles and everyone else? Is it Packers, Eagles? And hey, don't forget about the Lions and someone else. Just say, what's your kind of gut feel very early in the season?

20:51So very early, I think it's the Packers. I think it's the Eagles. And then I would throw the Bucs in there. Bucs, okay. I think getting Tristan Wirfs back healthy, potentially getting Chris Godwin back. I think both have said like they don't know if they'll play on Monday. If Tristan works or Chris Godwin both play Monday, that would be an incredible testament to their recovery process. But that is, once again, adding another element to their offense. But it's hard to not say the Packers aren't Super Bowl contenders because they're so dominant on defense right now. And I'm sure they're probably going to go through lulls during the season because it's a long season.

21:29But when you have an impact player like Micah Parson, when your defense in the secondary is as tied together as they are and you have a quarterback that you can trust in big games, you're going to go really far when it comes to playoff time. So they're definitely one of the Super Bowl contenders in the NFC. They feel like they can win in a lot of different ways right now with the way they're set up, run game, play calling, scheming stuff. of Jordan Love can just go to that tier where maybe the scheme's not working, but he's making high degree of difficulty throws, the defense, the pass rush, the coverage, to your point.

22:02So yeah, I think it's, I'm embarrassed. I can't believe I asked you. We're in week two, finished week two, and I'm asking you that question. Listen, this is what happens sometimes when you're doing the daily pods, your mind wanders to weird places there. How about the commanders, JP? We haven't talked too much about them, so I don't really think this game was about them. Are you like, all right, That was just kind of a learning experience. Are you like, no, some of the warts that maybe I thought we were going to see from this team were exposed tonight? I think they'll be fine. I think they just kind of ran into a buzzsaw this game.

22:34I do think I'm going to be monitoring some of their run game stuff, especially the running back runs, because the offense last year was so propped up by Jaden Daniels scrambling. If teams, which there are very few of them, but if there are teams that are able to slow down Jaden as a scrambler, how are you able to move the ball on the ground, which is where I think you add more Bill Krosky merit into the offense. I think you get Debo Samuel involved in the run game. The biggest thing for them is Debo Samuel looks healthy and he looks like he has the juice again. And that's something that's going to help keep that offense efficient, especially because it feels like Terry McLaurin has sort of kind of been an afterthought.

23:11What's going on with him? Yeah, I don't know if he's injured or what. Yeah, it's weird. Maybe it's just the ramp up after the holdout. But I think if they get Terry McLaurin back up to speed and all the elements in the offense, they'll be fine. It's just they ran into an angry group of Packers. Yeah, and their O-line couldn't hold up and didn't have their full group there. And this is not the week to be a little undermanned on the offensive line. So I'm with you. I think defense, I don't think they have a great defense. They're going to have to be opportunistic and great turnovers and negative plays.

23:43And I think we expected that coming into the season here. I don't think Jaden Daniels looked bad. I mean, like I said, I don't remember an open wide receiver for him all night long. So, you know, without having watched the film or anything, I don't know what he was supposed to do there. I am concerned about the pass catcher and group is an interesting one. I'm with you. When Debo got the ball late or even on the return, it's like, okay, he's got some juice, but I was like, where were, you know, where was that earlier in the game? There were some snaps, you know, he wasn't on the field early and I'm wondering.