Green Bay had itself a weekend. A win over their former star’s old team, and a green light to finally get their actual starting running back onto the field.
Jordan Love opened the scoring with his 11th touchdown pass of the season, and things mostly stayed in Green Bay’s control from there. The Packers led 17-0 at halftime, extended it to 20-7 through three quarters, and closed it out 23-13. Love added a rushing touchdown of his own, his first since November 2024, a detail that stood out given how much of his game usually runs through his arm rather than his legs.
Dallas, for its part, never really got untracked. Dak Prescott threw two interceptions in the red zone during the first half alone, including one that landed in cornerback Evan Williams’ hands to preserve Green Bay’s early 7-0 lead, and another picked off by Brandon Cisse. The Cowboys’ offense managed just 13 points on the night, a rough outing against a Packers defense that’s been getting the job done without its most expensive piece.
That’s the other half of this story. Micah Parsons wasn’t on the field Sunday, and hasn’t played a single snap for Green Bay this season. He tore his ACL and damaged his meniscus in a Week 15 game last December against Denver, not long after the Packers had traded two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas to get him, then signed him to a four-year, $188 million extension, the richest deal for a non-quarterback in NFL history at the time.
Head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed again this week that Parsons still hasn’t been cleared to practice, let alone play. The Packers generally hold players out at least nine months following ACL reconstruction, and that window only recently passed. Parsons himself had floated this exact Cowboys game, his first chance to face his old team, as a realistic target during training camp. That timeline has clearly slipped. On his own podcast, Parsons said he’s deliberately not rushing it, pointing out that ACL recoveries which come back too early often lead to a second injury somewhere else in the body.
In the meantime, Green Bay’s defense has leaned on younger edge rushers like Lukas Van Ness and Dani Dennis-Sutton, and results like Sunday’s suggest that group has held up well enough to buy Parsons the extra time he needs.
The other major Packers story this weekend had nothing to do with Sunday’s game at all. The NFL announced Jacobs will be taken off the commissioner exempt list Monday, making him eligible to practice and suit up for the first time all season.
Jacobs has been sidelined since before Week 1 due to an ongoing personal conduct investigation tied to a May 23 incident involving a woman at his home near Green Bay. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges connected to the case. His attorneys said in a statement that Jacobs “has dedicated the last several months to bettering himself” and “accepts responsibility for his actions.”
Coming off the exempt list doesn’t mean the matter is closed. The league’s conduct policy investigation is still active, and the NFL could still hand down a suspension even now that Jacobs is eligible to return. Since the six games he’s already missed would count toward any eventual suspension, how this plays out from here really depends on what the league decides and when. If Jacobs ends up suspended for more than six games total, he’d have to sit out the difference once that ruling comes down.
Green Bay heads to Detroit next, on October 25, carrying a three-game winning streak and, possibly, their starting running back back in the fold for the first time all year. Whether Jacobs actually plays right away, or how much the Packers ease him back in, remains to be seen. Parsons’ return timeline is even murkier, tied more to medical clearance than to any date on the calendar. For a team sitting at 4-2 and clearly finding ways to win without two of its highest-profile players, the bigger question heading into the back half of the season might be what this roster looks like once both of them are actually healthy and available at the same time.
