Micah Parsons is going to make the Green Bay Packers better. That part isn’t really up for debate.

When Parsons eventually comes back from reconstructive knee surgery, Green Bay will be adding one of the most disruptive defensive players in football. He can turn a routine Sunday into three hours of a quarterback wondering why nobody blocked No. 1.

The Packers desperately need that kind of player.

But Parsons can’t fix everything.

He can’t block for Jordan Love, create a running lane, or prevent another pre-snap penalty. He can’t stop a field-goal unit from letting someone come free up the middle. He can’t catch a third-down pass for Tucker Kraft or make a fourth-and-1 play call work just because the offense needs it to.

That’s what made Thursday night so eye-opening.

Green Bay didn’t just lose their home opener to Atlanta. The Packers got pushed around, 35-14, by a team that walked into Lambeau Field 0-2 and hadn’t run a play in the red zone all season.

Then the Falcons rolled up 498 yards, ran for 242, and scored 27 straight points. The Packers managed 17 rushing yards and wasted their two best chances to keep the game close with a blocked field goal and a failed fourth down.

Matt LaFleur called it “a humbling night” and “a butt-whooping.”

The question now isn’t whether Parsons will help. Of course he will. The question is whether Green Bay spent the first three weeks convincing themselves that his return will fix a team with problems spreading in every direction.

The Parsons Hope Is Completely Reasonable

There’s a reason the Packers are hanging on to this.

Parsons led Green Bay with 12.5 sacks, 27 quarterback hits, and 83 pressures in just 14 games last season. That pressure total ranked third in the NFL. Since entering the league in 2021, he ranks first in both total pressures and pressure rate.

And he doesn’t just win his own matchup. He makes life easier for everybody else.

Offenses have to slide protection his way, leave a tight end in to chip him, or ask a running back to help before releasing into a route. That opens up cleaner chances for Lukas Van Ness and the rest of the front. It also gives them more ways to create pressure without pulling another player out of coverage.

Green Bay knows exactly how much that matters because they've seen the difference firsthand.

The Packers were 9-3-1 when Parsons tore his ACL at Denver last December. They didn’t win again, dropping their final four regular-season games before blowing an 18-point lead against Chicago in the wild-card round. Earlier in the season, Parsons had a habit of coming up with the late sack or pressure that helped Green Bay finish games. Once he was gone, those finishes went with him.

Parsons isn’t just a star trying to get back on the field. He’s become the symbol of the Packers team everyone hopes is still in there somewhere underneath all this mess.

He’s following Green Bay’s cautious nine-month plan after ACL surgery and a meniscus cleanup. Parsons is targeting October, with the Packers’ Week 6 game against Dallas still being the goal.

That’s just close enough to give everyone some false hope.

Thursday Exposed Problems A Pass Rusher Can’t Touch

Parsons would’ve helped against Atlanta. He probably would’ve made Michael Penix Jr. a lot less comfortable, especially since Penix wasn’t sacked once and finished 18-of-25 for 256 yards.

But the Falcons didn’t beat Green Bay because Penix calmly dropped back 45 times and carved up a nonexistent pass rush.

They ran the ball 41 times.

Bijan Robinson carried it 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns. Brian Robinson Jr. added 50 yards and another score. Atlanta averaged 5.9 yards per carry and had the ball for more than 37 minutes.

Before Thursday, this had looked like one of Green Bay’s strengths. The Packers had allowed 2.85 yards per carry through two games, second-best in the NFL. And they held opposing runners to 118 yards on 58 attempts outside of three explosive plays.

Then Atlanta used outside-zone runs to attack an aggressive defense that kept overpursuing. Once Robinson got to the edge, Green Bay’s defensive backs took bad angles or couldn’t finish tackles. His 55-yard run came right after Brenton Cox Jr.’s questionable roughing penalty extended a drive that was already stopped.

The penalty was frustrating. The response was worse.

Green Bay let Robinson run from one side of the field to the other and get all the way to the 5-yard line on the very next snap. That wasn’t a missing-Parsons problem. It was an assignment, leverage, and tackling problem.

Drake London was a different kind of embarrassment altogether. He caught nine passes for 194 yards. Green Bay got so worried about the run that their secondary started handing out free space downfield.

Parsons can speed up the clock in Penix’s head. He can’t cover London 40 yards downfield after the coverage falls apart.

The Offensive Line Is A Real Emergency

If one part of this team deserves the full panic button, it’s the offensive line. And somehow, the historical comparison makes it even worse than it looks watching it.

Among 672 offensive lines through the first three games of a season since 2006, Green Bay’s 31.9% pass-block win rate ranks seventh-worst.

This isn’t just one lineman having a bad month. The problems are showing up everywhere.

Against Atlanta, the Packers were without starting left guard Aaron Banks and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele. Monk left late with a quad injury. Love was pressured 23 times even though he was getting the ball out quickly, and Atlanta created that pressure without having to send the house at him.

That’s what makes everything else on offense look so much harder.

When Love's had a clean pocket this season, he has six touchdown passes, no interceptions, and a 112.6 passer rating. Under pressure, he's completed 36% of his passes, thrown two interceptions, and posted a 40.4 rating.

Love hasn’t been perfect. He missed throws Thursday. He held the ball at times and threw a pointless late interception with the game already out of reach.

But Green Bay's asking their quarterback to play through chaos on just about half his dropbacks, then acting surprised when his mechanics start looking chaotic too.

There's No Running Game To Protect Anybody

A bad offensive line gets even harder to hide when the defense doesn’t respect the handoff.

Through three games, the Packers’ running backs have combined for 146 yards on 48 carries. That’s 3.0 yards per attempt. They haven’t scored a rushing touchdown, and their longest run against Atlanta went for six yards.

Josh Jacobs's still on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, leaving MarShawn Lloyd, Kaleb Johnson, and Chris Brooks to handle a job none of them have shown they can consistently own.

Lloyd's barely played in his first two NFL seasons because of injuries. Johnson was picked up from Pittsburgh just two weeks before the opener. Brooks came into the year with 289 career rushing yards.

There’s some talent in the group. There just isn’t a dependable answer.

The scoreboard didn’t force Green Bay to abandon the run Thursday. The Packers were already steering clear of it before the game got away. Lloyd and Johnson combined for five first-half carries even though Green Bay went three-and-out four times.

By the end, Love had dropped back 54 times while the Packers called eight designed runs.

That’s not balance. That’s an offense waving a white flag at an entire way of moving the ball.

Some Of This Is Still Fixable

The Packers aren’t dead because they’re 1-2.

They’ve got 10 days between the Atlanta loss and their trip to Tampa Bay. Banks could be back. Tomlinson should help settle things in the interior. The young backs will keep getting more comfortable, and LaFleur's built too many good offenses to spend an entire season calling games this badly.

There are real weapons on this team.

Christian Watson has four touchdown catches in three games. Matthew Golden just had the first 100-yard game of his career. Love's thrown six touchdowns when he’s had a clean pocket. Van Ness looked like a real breakout player against the Jets, piling up nine pressures and helping Green Bay rack up seven sacks through their first two games.

Even the penalty problem showed a little progress Thursday.

Green Bay had 12 accepted penalties in Week 1 and 14 in Week 2. They only had six against Atlanta. That’s still an absurd 32 penalties for 276 yards, but this is a discipline problem. It’s not some unsolvable roster flaw.

The blocked field goal should be fixable too. Trey Smack made every field goal he’d attempted before Thursday, including a 59-yarder in his NFL debut and the overtime winner against the Jets. Against Atlanta, Zach Harrison slipped through the protection after Belton leaned too far outside.

That’s technique. Clean up the protection, and Smack's still one of the early bright spots.

The danger is lumping all of these problems together under the same vague label of execution.

A missed block can be fixed. A unit that ranks among the worst offensive lines of the last two decades needs more than a better Tuesday practice.

One penalty can be avoided. Thirty-two in three games points to something deeper with preparation and composure.

This Has Been Going On Longer Than Three Games

The most uncomfortable number in Green Bay isn’t 1-2.

It’s 1-7.

That’s the Packers’ record over their last eight games, going all the way back to the collapse in Denver. Their only win in that stretch took a 10-point fourth-quarter comeback and overtime against the Jets.

Green Bay’s minus-35 point differential is their worst through three games since 1988. Two of the losses have come by at least 17 points, something the Packers hadn’t done twice in a full season since 2017.

At this point, this is starting to look like more than a slow September. It’s starting to look like last season never really ended.

The same problems keep showing up. Protection breaks down. Drives come up empty. Short-yardage plays fail. Penalties keep drives alive. Special-teams mistakes show up at exactly the wrong time. And the defense looks dominant for stretches before giving everything back in one bad sequence.

Parsons covered up some of that last season because great players can make dysfunction harder to see. A sack on third down gets everyone off the field. A forced fumble flips the field.

That doesn’t mean his injury caused every problem that came after it.

It means his brilliance was hiding some of them.

The Packers travel to Tampa to take on the Buccaneers Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and streaming on FOX One.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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