RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesGREEN BAY – It’s not hard to imagine Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon looking at the 2026 season in two fragments.
There’s the defense without Micah Parsons and the defense with Micah Parsons.
Currently, Gannon is installing every phase of his defense as part of a traditional training camp review every coach employs. Once that’s complete, he will start narrowing down the practice plan to fit his personnel and the opponents the Packers will face in the regular season.
But how in the world do you construct a plan that allows for one of the best and most versatile defensive players in the NFL to jump into the starting lineup in Week 5 or 6 or whenever Parsons is cleared to return from the torn ACL he suffered last year?
In a group interview Aug. 4, Parsons said he has talked to Gannon about moving around and rushing from anywhere along the line of scrimmage in the same way he did last year under then-coordinator Jeff Hafley.
“He told me he has some plays in his attack he was waiting for when I get back,” Parsons said. “So, I’m really excited about that.”
All through camp, Gannon will be preparing his team to play without Parsons, one of the most unique players on the planet given his combination of skill and ferociousness. He can try to use someone else in the roles he has designed for Parsons, but it might be a fool’s errand given Parsons’ hard-to-replicate talent.
Gannon isn’t looking at it as two different seasons. There must be some continuity for the other players when Parsons gets back; otherwise, everybody is starting from square one.
“ I think our job as coaches, in my role specifically as the defensive coordinator, is to try to put our 11 in the best positions that we can to affect the game in a positive way,” Gannon said Aug. 5 in his first media availability of training camp. “So, when you do that, that's also there's an element of your opponent that you're playing as well, right?
“So, I think you know what we're doing right now is kind of going through our installs, seeing what our guys are comfortable with, seeing their skill sets, seeing what they can do. And then obviously we have a pretty good understanding of the player that Micah is and see where he fits into all that.”
Gannon is known for making his scheme look complicated and foreign to opposing quarterbacks, and Parsons won’t be alone in making that happen. If he can create a solid foundation with the group he’s prepping now for the regular season, then he can design ways for Parsons to disrupt offenses within that scheme.
“It's not very complicated in my opinion to use him or deploy him in a way to affect the game in a positive way,” Gannon said. “He's been awesome. He's very smart. He understands a lot of things that we're doing already, how they complement other things that we're trying to do, and (where) he can see himself. We were talking the other day; he could see himself in a bunch of different spots in different calls. So that's kind of cool, and it'll just be our job to make sure that he gets his touches, which he will.”
If Gannon can do all that without disrupting the defense, it would be ideal. But players’ assignments changed when Hafley started incorporating some of the more exotic blitzes he used with Parsons, and there will be an adjustment period.
Another area Gannon considers important to the defense’s success is finding ways to maximize the talent he has at safety with Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard. Technically, Bullard is a slot corner now, but he came into the league as a safety and still gets snaps there.
Bullard is part of the new breed of slot corners (think Philadelphia’s Cooper DeJean and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Derwin James) who are quick enough to cover but also big enough to play the run and be effective blitzers. McKinney, Williams and Bullard can be interchangeable – although Bullard is a better man coverage player than Williams – so there will be things Gannon can do to create confusion with alignments.
“They're the last line of defense,” Gannon said. “So, first trait I look for in that position is reliability, and then I think that you can get creative in ways that, I don't want to say make it hard on an offense but gives them a different picture – and you're really not doing anything different.
“Now, that only can be good if those guys can do that, and I do believe we have the room to do that.”
Something Gannon is contemplating is using more than just the basic parts of the scheme in the preseason games to help his players get comfortable executing at full speed. Most coaches refuse to use anything but basic schemes because they’re paranoid about their season-opening opponent getting a preview of what it might see.
But in most cases, it takes only a couple of series for an opponent to figure out what it's facing, and it may be more beneficial for Gannon to give his players in-game experience running his system than hold back.
“I’ve had some really good conversations with Matt (LaFleur) about that,” Gannon said. “I don't think there's a right or a wrong answer with that question. It's a really good question. I'll probably punt on that one.
“But how do I say this the right way? I think that our players have earned the right to play our stuff and get really good at it and go play.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: What will Jonathan Gannon's Packers defense look like without Micah Parsons?
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