Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst is not sounding panicked about the team’s pass rush as the 2026 season opens without Micah Parsons.
Parsons remains sidelined while he works back from a torn ACL suffered last December and is expected to miss at least a month, and quite possibly the first five or six games. That absence has invited questions about whether the Packers can generate enough pressure from a 3-4 front until Parsons returns.
Speaking to reporters, Gutekunst was asked directly whether Green Bay has the personnel to stay viable as a pass-rushing unit without its highest-paid defender. His reply was brief and confident.
“Yeah, I think we do,” Gutekunst said, per Bill Huber of Packers on SI.
The executive then expounded upon his point.
“I’m really excited about the group we have,” he added. “We only kept four on the active [roster] but, on the practice squad, we were able to keep Nyjalik Kelly as well as Arron Mosby. As you know, things can change, but those six guys I feel pretty good about.”
Those six include fourth-round pick Dani Dennis-Sutton from Penn State and undrafted rookie Nyjalik Kelly, who turned heads in the preseason. Gutekunst’s comments suggest the front office is prepared to ride that internal depth early, betting that the unit can hold serve until Parsons is closer to full strength later in the year.
Rumors that Green Bay might add an established rusher from outside the building were also shut down. Reports linking the Packers to Arizona Cardinals edge Josh Sweat circulated after Sweat sat out much of Arizona’s offseason work and after Jonathan Gannon, Sweat’s former coordinator in Philadelphia and later head coach in the desert, was hired as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator.
Gutekunst rejected the idea outright. “No one from our organization has had a conversation about Josh Sweat from anyone at Arizona,” he said, per Ryan Wood of USA Today. “That’s coming out of thin air. Someone is making stuff up, because that never happened.”
Sweat posted 12 sacks last season and still has three years left on a four-year, $76.4 million contract. Green Bay has roughly $16.3 million in cap space and already committed $46.5 million annually to Parsons after sending two first-round picks and Kenny Clark to Dallas last summer.
Even so, Gutekunst showed no interest in pursuing the Cardinals rusher, despite the schematic familiarity Gannon would bring.
The stance leaves the Packers leaning on youth and practice-squad depth in September and October.
If Kelly or Dennis-Sutton can produce as situational rushers, Gutekunst’s five-word vote of confidence may look prescient. If they cannot, the early-season pass rush will be a test of how much faith the organization is willing to place in its current roster while Parsons completes his recovery.
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