Cleveland Browns defensive stalwart Myles Garrett is staring down the NFL’s single-season sack record. He’s poised to break it at some point over the final three games of his 2025 campaign. But if you ask Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, that mark will be reset in 2026: by Micah Parsons, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear during a loss to the Denver Broncos last weekend.
“Just wait till you guys see how hard he works to come back, how fast he probably comes back,” Hafley told reporters on Wednesday. “If I were a betting man, I would bet that he comes back better and probably breaks the sack record next year.
“So I’m going to put that on Micah and myself, and you guys can put it out there. And that’s the confidence I have in him.”
That kind of output would put Parsons in line for not only NFL Defensive Player of the Year but also NFL Comeback Player of the Year, considering he’ll likely miss the beginning of next season. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported earlier this week that the star pass rusher faces a recovery of at least nine months.
Advertisement
As of Wednesday morning, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Parsons still hadn’t had surgery to repair the torn left ACL he suffered Sunday. That delay is not unusual for players awaiting a reconstructive knee procedure, however.
Still, in all likelihood, the Packers will start the 2026 campaign without Parsons, meaning the type of bounce-back season Hafley is predicting would be all the more incredible.
Garrett is one sack away from tying the current sack record, which is co-owned by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. Strahan recorded 22.5 sacks with the New York Giants in 2001, and Watt matched that mark in 2021 with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Even if Garrett somehow doesn’t eclipse that total this season, Parsons would need 23 sacks in less than a full season.
Advertisement
He piled up 12.5 sacks in 14 games this season, his first with Hafley and the Packers after an infamous contract standoff with the Dallas Cowboys that resulted in Jerry Jones trading Parsons for three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and a pair of first-round picks.
[Get more Packers news: Green Bay team feed]
Parsons joined the Packers on Aug. 28, just 10 days before their season opener, and inked a four-year, $188 million deal with the team, including a reported $136 million of guaranteed money, that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
“I didn’t even know him,” said Hafley, who is in his second year as Green Bay’s DC. “[I] quickly developed a really good relationship with him.
” … How hard he worked and how hard he played and how hard he does play in the run game, in the pass game, the way he strains — I just have so much respect for the guy.”
While Parsons didn’t record a sack in Week 14 or 15, he’s still first in the league in pressures this season, according to Next Gen Stats. His 20.7% pressure rate in 2025 was the third best of his career, which has included four Pro Bowl nods and three All-Pro accolades.
Advertisement
Parsons has accounted for a third of the Packers’ pressures this season, per NGS.
Just as Hafley believes in his sack artist making a triumphant return, he believes in the rest of his unit responding to Parsons’ absence with conviction.
“As far as the team goes, I told them: ‘You can’t let circumstance dictate behavior,'” Hafley said. “A week ago, we’re in here after we beat the Bears, and we’re all walking in here all upbeat and ready to roll. And I said, ‘Shame on you, if you walk in here any different today.’ … And that’s our job as leaders and as coaches to make sure that we don’t do that.
“We got really good players. We play good defense, and we’re going to continue to play good defense. And our guys understand that.”
