GREEN BAY, Wis. -- In the back of their minds, those in the Green Bay Packers' locker room knew Micah Parsons' return at some point this season would matter only if they did one thing: Stay alive.
Three weeks into the season, there was reason to think that wouldn't happen. The Packers were 1-2, and the return of their star pass rusher was still weeks, even months, away.
Yet safety Xavier McKinney, one of the defensive captains, had one thought.
"Get back into the mix," he said, "and let's get this thing going."
By the time Parsons returned to the practice field Wednesday, the Packers had done just that. At 5-3 heading into Sunday's game at the New England Patriots (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox), they're smack dab in the NFC playoff picture nearing the midway point of the season. While Parsons is expected to miss at least two more games with an eye on returning for the Thanksgiving Eve game at the Los Angeles Rams, the Packers believe they've given Parsons a reason to come back for something more than just individual pride after a devastating and complex knee injury.
"We put ourselves in a solid situation," McKinney said. "It could be better, and we all know that. But it could be worse."
Parsons didn't necessarily look at the season that way. He was coming back, eventually, regardless of the Packers' record when he was cleared to return. He was focused on the end of the season, not the beginning, especially after they began last season 9-3-1 before losing five straight after he blew out his knee in Week 15.
"I don't really buy into records because you've seen teams that lose a lot of games, finish strong, or last year we started strong, finished terrible," Parsons said after his return to practice on Wednesday. "It doesn't really matter about how you start, it's about how you finish."
That's exactly the conversation Parsons said he was having recently with rookie edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton, who, like Parsons, played at Penn State before coming to the NFL.
"I said, 'It's November time. You've got to lock in,'" Parsons said.
Dennis-Sutton asked, "What's November time?"
"I said, 'I get it, you're at Penn State last year, you're getting ready to think about bowl game you're heading to,'" Parsons said. "But I said, 'November gets ready for December, and December tells us who we're going to be for playoffs. ... It's going to get harder, it's going to be more challenging, but we've got to be ready to step up.'
"That's what I'm excited for. I came back for the greatest time of football, and that's November football and December football. Let the show begin."
In some ways, the Packers' defense has overachieved without Parsons. Through Week 8, the Packers ranked in the top 10 in fewest yards allowed (10th), fewest passing yards allowed (eighth) and fewest points allowed (10th).
They have allowed 20 or fewer points in five straight games, their longest single-season streak since 2022 and one short of their longest streak since they won the Super Bowl in the 2010 season.
What's more, they have allowed 20 or fewer points and had multiple takeaways in five straight games, their longest streak since 1994. A sixth straight game like that would tie the longest single-season streak by any NFL team in the past 30 years. Their 15 takeaways rank tied for second and are one more than the Packers had all of last season.
Now they will get an emotional boost from Parsons even before they get to see him in game action.
"We know it'll be probably a couple weeks to get him back in the swing of things," quarterback Jordan Love said. "But just to have him back out there on the practice field, to know that he'll be coming back soon, is great."
The pass rush, minus one of the NFL's best pass rushers, hasn't been bad, either. The Packers rank sixth in sacks (22) despite not having a single player ranked in the top 16 in that category (Lukas Van Ness, with a team-high 4.5 sacks, is tied for 17th). They're second in quarterback pressures (117), according to ESPN Analytics, despite not having a single player in the top 15 in that category (Van Ness, with a team-high 22, is tied for 16th).
Much of the credit for that has gone to first-year defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who has been described by Packers coach Matt LaFleur as a "savant."
While Gannon has been lauded for his blitzes, it has been about disguise and the anticipation of extra rushers more than the actual rate at which he has sent more than five after the quarterback. The Packers rank only 12th in the league in blitz rate (33%), according to ESPN Analytics.
"Wins and losses are the only stat I'm worried about," Gannon said this week when asked whether he's surprised his pass rush has been so effective without Parsons. "But yeah, I think our guys have done a good job of taking the coaching and affecting the game in a positive way, executing the game plan as much as we can, and we got some guys winning at a pretty good rate of one-on-ones right now. It's about the players."
Parsons admitted he will probably be on a snap count when he does return to game action, saying that playing 50 snaps per game is "just not realistic. My body's not there yet. I don't think my knee's built for that yet."
But even that will make a difference.
"It's going to be a different monster," McKinney said. "He provides a certain level intensity for our defense, a certain level of playmaking for our defense. He's a game-changer, he's a game-wrecker. When we get him back, it's going to be a lot better than what it is. But we've still got to put in the work. We can't think it's just going to happen."