The Green Bay Packers are still waiting on Micah Parsons, but the wait may be shorter than it looked a few days ago.
The Packers have been managing a crowded injury report, and the absence of their star edge rusher has hung over the start of the season. Parsons tore his ACL in December 2025 and opened 2026 on the physically unable to perform list, with the club already acknowledging he would miss at least the first month.
Later projections pushed a possible debut into November. Parsons has been more ambitious than that, telling people he wants to be active for the Week 6 visit from his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, on Sunday night at Lambeau Field on October 18.
Head coach Matt LaFleur cooled that talk earlier in the week when he said Parsons would not practice before Sunday’s home game against the Chicago Bears.
On Thursday, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky offered a more encouraging read from the sideline. Parsons has been increasing his work with the rehab staff, including activity Demovsky described as new, or at least newly visible, off to the side of practice.
Demovsky asked openly whether a return to the practice field could come as soon as next week. Getting cleared to practice is not the same as playing, and even a return to team work in the coming days would leave open the question of whether Parsons can be ready for Dallas.
It would, though, keep his personal target alive.
Sunday comes first. Chicago will start backup quarterback Tyson Bagent while Caleb Williams sits with a hamstring injury, yet the Bears are still favored at Lambeau.
The line opened with Chicago as a 3.5-point favorite and had tightened to 1.5 by Thursday afternoon at DraftKings, as money moved toward Green Bay at home.
If the spread holds, it will be only the third time in three decades that the Bears have entered Lambeau as the betting favorite. Chicago has earned that respect.
Its run game has been punishing through four weeks, and the defense has allowed 28 points across its last three games, fewer than 10 a contest, largely by controlling the clock and keeping the other offense off the field.
The rivalry is volatile enough that a home win, and a move to 3-2, remains plausible. A loss would make the Cowboys game more urgent.
After that, Green Bay’s schedule stiffens: road games against Detroit, New England and the Los Angeles Rams, with home dates against Carolina and Minnesota mixed in. Getting Parsons back into the rotation before that stretch would change the look of a pass rush that has had to operate without its best player.
For now, the Packers have a promising update and a division game that will not wait on his knee.
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