Jayden Daniels, Dan Quinn and the rest of the Washington Commanders know full well what to expect from Micah Parsons when they face the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night.
Daniels, having played in Parsons' division, knows he must identify the pass rusher every snap.
"You don't let game-wreckers wreck the game," Daniels said on Tuesday. "You've got to keep an eye on him. He got paid a lot of money for a reason."
Quinn, who coached the pass rusher when he was the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, took to humor when asked about combating a player like Parsons.
"Are you asking what would I do if I were coaching him? I'd sit him this week. Yeah, short week," he said, laughing.
Nursing a back injury and just joining his new club, Parsons played 29 snaps in his Packers debut Week 1 versus Detroit (44.6 percent of snaps). Despite his play being curtailed, the Pro Bowler still earned a sack and three QB pressures (per Next Gen Stats, he recorded a QBP on his first snap with the Packers).
Parsons lined up off the left edge on 22 of his 29 snaps in Week 1 (versus RT Penei Sewell). We'll see if that holds against Washington, where rookie Josh Conerly Jr. mans the right side, or whether the Packers move him around more.
Regardless, Quinn knows Parsons presents a massive challenge any time he's on the field.
"Like Micah and other great players, you want to know where they are to how to go play," he said, "and if you have a vulnerability in a spot, you want to make sure you can fortify that to a strength. So, you don't just leave it to chance and see what happens."
Playing in the NFC East his first four seasons, Parsons has more sacks (10.5), tackles for loss (9) and QB hits (15) against the Commanders than he does against any other opponent in his career (eight career games played versus Washington).
In two games in 2024, Parsons sacked Daniels 4.5 times (most versus Daniels of any player).
Quinn is keenly aware of how Parsons tips the field and makes the players around him better.
"You want to make sure there's a plan to go into it," he said. "And so, for teams like Green Bay, they've got a number of good players and that makes it also more challenging when this one and this one and that one over there. So, when there's just one player that to stop and say, 'OK, this is what we want to do,' that's easier than when there's multiple people in different locations. So, in my experience, the best of the best teams have had a number of players that were high-level hitters and now this one gets too much attention. You leave this one open, he's going to shoot the three and make you pay. And so, you want to have enough balance in how you do things to make sure that one player doesn't get too much attention but also enough that they don't wreck the game."
The Commanders' plan to slow Parsons will be one of the keys to watch in Thursday's prime-time matchup.
