MVPARSONS: Micah Parsons is worth MORE to the Green Bay Packers than most quarterbacks

With free agency set to open in mere days, there's about to be a whole lot of crowing about

contract value.

Micah Parsons already one of the highest paid players in the NFL, but there's no problems

there.

He's worth more than most quarterbacks in the league right now.

You are locked on Packers.

You're daily Green Bay Packers podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team

every day.

You were locked on Packers, part of the locked on podcast network your team every day.

I'm Peter McCaskan.

I cover the Packers for the leap.

A newsletter.

I would love for you to subscribe to subscribe to the podcast, wherever you get podcasts,

Apple music, Spotify, Google, wherever you get podcasts, you'll find locked on Packers.

The number one Packers podcast on the internet and the show for fans who know what happened.

They want to know why and how thanks to everyone who makes locked on Packers, they're first

less than every day.

We hope you like starting your day with us as much as we like starting our day with you.

Here on the locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network, Chris Brooks

gets a deal with the Packers at two year extension to be one of the best blocking running

backs in the NFL.

We're going to talk about Brian Guderkins obsession with speed, hot, dirty, nasty speed.

But we're going to start with Micah Parsons because the Packers don't have a first round

pick because they have Micah Parsons.

And Micah Parsons is getting 46 and a half million dollars a year.

And that's a lot of money.

But I wanted to try and put it in perspective as we head into free agency because there's

going to be a lot of like, whoa, that player got what?

Who?

Huh?

They did.

He.

And so maybe not exactly like that, but it'll be something close to that.

And I thought about it because I was thinking about the Kyler Murray situation.

And he's going to play, if not on the minimum, a very low money deal, probably a one year

deal, wherever he goes.

And so we're going to have these discussions about value where she Walker is going to get

20 plus million.

I think Romeo Dobbs is going to get 20 plus million.

And we're all going to go wait a second.

What?

And Micah Parsons is getting 46 and a half.

And I thought, you know, uh, most quarterbacks don't make 46 and a half.

In fact, there are 11 quarterbacks in the NFL right now who make at least not much money.

And if you look at them, I tried to go through the experiment.

Okay.

Who would, who would you trade straight up for Micah Parsons in a vacuum?

Like if you didn't have Jordan left, if you had a replacement level quarterback, if you

had, you know, Jason McCarthy is probably too bad a player to get involved in this discussion.

But like if your team had Mac Jones at quarterback, if your team had, you know, the, the pre Arthur

Smith, Ryan Tanahill at quarterback, like the Miami Dolphins, Ryan Tanahill, what would

Micah Parsons be worth to you?

Well, who, what quarterbacks would you trade and vice versa?

I said 11 quarterbacks make at least as much as Micah Parsons.

Well, two of us, one of them and the Dolphins are going to cut him and all likelihood.

And so we can just check him right off the list.

So that's 10 quarterbacks already Kyler Murray is making 46.1.

We know for a fact the team that paid him that money does not want to pay him that money

to Sean Watson got 46 million dollars.

That's not going to work.

Cousins got 45 million dollars.

And if you want to put together a list of quarterbacks, you might say, well, Matthew

Stafford is a top 10 quarterback with Matthew Stafford is almost 40 years old.

You would not trade Micah Parsons in his prime from Matthew Stafford.

And I know Matthew Stafford is not worth 46 million dollars.

You know how I know that because the Rams in a Super Bowl window had the chance to give

him that money and they decided, no, thanks, we're going to give him 40 million dollars.

The list of quarterbacks after that, excusing rookie deal players, like it's pretty obvious.

You would not rather have them than Micah Parsons guys like Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Justin

Fields, Aaron Rodgers, Geno Smith, Daniel Jones.

You would not rather have those guys Daniel Jones is going to make a lot of money on the

transition tag, 37.83 million dollars.

In no universe, would you rather have Daniel Jones than Micah Parsons?

If the Packers called the Colts tomorrow, assuming Daniel Jones could pass a physical and

offered Micah Parsons, Chris Ballard would do that deal.

And then like call everyone he knows and go, can you believe the Packers were willing

to give us Micah Parsons for Daniel Jones?

That's insanity.

So the only quarterback and the upper echelon of quarterbacks anyway, making the kind of

money that would make you think twice is Patrick Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes makes 45 million

dollars a year.

So let's just swap Mahomes for two.

So okay.

At the top, I think it's obvious that the top quarterbacks, the Lamar Josh Joe Patrick

are set.

After that, in terms of the guys already making that much money, I think there are real

conversations to be had about Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy,

Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hertz.

And if it were me and I were looking at this list and going, okay, who is worth more

than the, by the way, the second best pass rusher in the NFL because Mahomes Garrett is

the best.

The value of Micah Parsons, if you called the 49ers, they would give you Brock Purdy.

If you called the Detroit Lions, they would give you Jared Goff.

I mean, probably maybe the Lions wouldn't because they're in like a, you know, they

think they're in the last efforts of a win now window.

I'm not so sure like the Lions, they're, they're in a tough situation right now.

I mean, that team, they might have just straight up missed their window.

Jared Goff is getting older.

He's expensive $53 million for Jared Goff.

Like, that's Micah Parsons and another starting caliber player.

There's no way that Jared Goff is more valuable.

So if you look at that next group of guys, DAC, Lawrence, love, party, hurts.

I would rather have Micah Parsons than Brock Purdy relative to an average starter.

We saw it last year, Mac Jones.

Like if we're going to do the comparable with Mac Jones, Mac Jones was just as good as Brock

Purdy last year in the same situation.

Now I understand, you know, Bears fans will point out like, hey, you said, Malik Willis,

you know, is not better than Jordan.

I love even though he's more efficient, okay, but, but Malik Willis has never thrown

the ball more than 21 times in a game.

Mac Jones was about 50 times last year and we're talking about half a season worth of

starts for San Francisco plus a full season number of starts in, in New England where he

was a solid player.

Malik Willis does not have that.

So let's not, let's not get it twisted here.

So if you're going to give me the top, like, give me the top five quarterbacks for sure,

I would put Justin Herbert in that list, but I understand reasonable people could disagree

with that.

The next group, the DAC, Lawrence, love, hurts, Purdy, golf, that's six quarterbacks.

I would probably only rather have the quarterback like half of the time.

I'd probably rather have DAC, but it's close.

I'd probably rather have Lawrence, but it's close, 55 million.

I could have Micah Parsons or almost a $10 million player for Trevor Lawrence.

Trevor Lawrence is yelling, he's 27.

I understand.

That one's tough.

Now, personally, I would rather have Jordan love.

I understand that's not for everybody, but I would rather have Jordan love.

Now I would rather have Jordan love and Micah Parsons, which is what the packers get to have.

But when we're talking about value, when we're talking about what is he worth to his team

and what is he worth relative to other relative to the most valuable players in the in sports,

there is not a position in sports more valuable than the quarterback position in the NFL.

And there are, I would say max eight quarterbacks you would rather have.

If we're really being generous, 10 quarterbacks you'd rather have than Micah freaking Parsons.

And if you had to trade for one of those quarterbacks, you'd have to give up two picks

at least.

I'm talking first round picks.

If someone called and said, we'd like to get Jordan love off your hands, off your books,

the conversation would start at two first round picks.

And I think it would, I think it would go to three and anything above Jordan love in terms

of the player quality, the Herbert's, the burrows, the Jackson's.

You're talking about three plus first round picks, three first round picks, multiple seconds,

a player, multiple players, those kinds of, that's what we're talking about.

And the Packers didn't even have to give up the two first round picks and a player they

were going to cut this time now.

That's how good Micah Parsons is.

Let's not forget that.

I think that's getting lost a little bit.

Micah Parsons is an incredible football player.

And the Packers got him at a position where, you know, if you're going to, if you were

going to trade for, you know, Jalen hers made a bad example, but like Jared golf.

He's a top 10 top 12 kind of quarterback, but you'd rather have Micah Parsons.

That's the caliber of player that the Packers got.

And that's the value that they extracted in all of this now.

Let's talk, speaking of value of the value of Packers got in this Chris, Chris Brooks deal

will do that next unlocked on Packers.

Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast.

The people I love depend on me.

If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear.

I didn't want my family figuring things out during the hardest moment of their lives.

That's why I knew only one place to go.

I chose life insurance through my friends at ethos.

Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy 100% online.

You get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes and get same day coverage.

There's no medical exam.

You just answer a few simple health questions, you get up to $3 million in coverage.

Some policies are as low as $30 a month.

I love the folks of ethos protect your family with life insurance from ethos now by going

to ethos.com slash locked on NFL in as long as 10 minutes, you can get the free quote

up to $3 million in coverage at ethos.com slash locked on NFL.

That is ETH OS.com slash locked on NFL ethos.com slash locked on NFL application times and

rates may vary.

Free agency is here and so are we get one month free of the every day or club with code

free agency.

No spaces now through March 15th.

So free agency all caps.

Go ad free and keep this conversation going in the discord.

The group chat is here for you, locked on Packers, join locked on Packers at supercast.com

or click the link in the show notes to learn more.

This Brooks, one of the most valuable blocking backs in the NFL signs a two year deal worth

$4.85 million dollars.

Not a lot of money at all for a quality backup back.

They have the choice, Emmanuel Wilson or Chris books.

And if you're going to have a backup runner, you just need someone with more juice behind

Josh Jacobs.

I don't want to, I don't want to go through this again because we've talked about it.

A ton.

Now the flip side of this is the Packers could have given Chris Brooks a $3.5 million

tender.

And so you're getting him for basically half that price, but you're getting him for two

years.

And if it were in three and a half, like if you just, you know, push that out to two years

or talking about $7 million, now they wouldn't have had to give him two years at that

$3.5 million.

But then you got to give him a contract next year and you're not going to get him at,

you know, the vet minimum because, you know, he's shown he is a quality blocking back.

Is he going to change the world for you?

No.

Now I, you know, people say to me, look, you call him running back three, but until proven

otherwise, he's RB two because Emmanuel Wilson's out the door.

And Martian Lloyd is, you know, in a hyperbaric chamber somewhere trying to get his body

right.

And you want to, you want to hold space for Martian Lloyd.

You want to hold out hope that he can give you something, but you can't count on him.

And so I do think it's fair to say, look, until the packers add another back.

He is Chris Brooks is RB three.

Now there are some free agents out there players.

You might want to consider someone like Kenneth Gainwell, who can be that receiving back

in and create some explosive plays.

That way, had one of the catches of the season, like, regardless of position.

But I don't think the packers are going to play in those waters.

I don't think it makes sense for them to do it.

I don't think you're going to see them in free agents.

You go out and sign a running back.

It's just not who they are.

I'm sorry, Aaron Jones is not coming home.

Even if that would be a great story, it would be great to see him, you know, compete to

win a Super Bowl in Green Bay again.

I just don't see that as a thing that is likely.

So you're looking at the draft.

But when you have a backfield that is Josh Jacobs and Chris Brooks, you can allow that

back to come along slowly.

And we've seen, you know, running backs coming right away, ready to go, especially when

they don't have to be someone who every third and eight, third and 10 is in there having

to figure out the rules of past protection.

If they're in there on early passing downs, it's usually quick game or it's play action

shot plays.

So you're not having to sort out who's who in the zoo and who's coming and is that guy

coming off the edge or is it double A?

Who do I have?

All those things that can overwhelm a rookie running back.

What is my aim point on outside zone?

Okay, cool.

Let me, let me cut this back.

If I have the option, otherwise, you know, let me, let me hit my landmark.

That makes it very easy for a rookie to come in and be productive for you.

Now the packers, even if they go out and sign a running back like think of or draft a

running back, excuse me, think of 2020 when they bring an AJ Dylan, they use a second

round pick on AJ Dylan.

Now Jamal Williams was a much higher volume player at the time.

And so they didn't have a lot of time where you felt like you needed to use AJ Dylan

by the end of the year, you know, they were using pony personnel and it was either the

fake give to AJ Dylan swing screen to Aaron Jones, like there was a lot of cool stuff

that they were doing there in 2020 and 2021.

I just, I don't know how much of that you can expect a rookie to be able to pick up.

It's going to be more traditional runs, it's going to be check downs, it's going to

be screens, it's going to be throwback screen, it's going to be those sorts of things.

And you're going to ask them to be a part of the passing game as a check down, not as,

okay, split you out wide and you're going to have to go run routes like unless that's

part of their, their skill set, you're not going to ask them to develop that.

Even if it's something that like down the line you'd like to use, like Mike Washington

Jr. is someone who was part of the passing game at Arkansas, but it was mostly on screens.

He shows pretty good hands, he's got, he's got a pretty good receiving ability.

And now in the college game, like you, you really can't just be, you know, Jonathan Taylor

was never really a big part of the passing game in Wisconsin because they didn't have

a passing game at Wisconsin.

And there was this conversation for a little while when it was like, maybe I'm bow and

Christian McCaffrey and all these backs that you could split out wide and run routes.

And it was like, well, if he can't do that, you can't, you can't draft him.

He's not valuable enough for you to draft them well.

Derek Henry is a really good football player.

You can't use them like that.

And Safequan Barkley, you can use in the passing game, but you're not asking him to go out

and like beat linebackers one on one.

Even the best version of Safequan Barkley was doing that like once every once in a while

he'd run a wheel route and with his speed, he had pretty good ball skills like you'd

be in a good position to create an explosive play if he's open.

I just, I don't think that's a world that we live in right now where you have to get

that out of a running back.

Just come in.

And this is not really something that MATLA floor does if he doesn't have to.

It was great in 2019 when he could use Aaron Jones that way.

You know, the chiefs game is an example I use all the time where you had to split him

out and he's running sluggos and on the third down, you clinch the game on a little

out route to him against the linebacker.

Most of the time you don't need your running back to do that.

It's great if he can do it.

The packers don't need someone to do that.

They have enough other players to do that kind of stuff.

What they need is someone who can come in and rip off chunk runs who can give them some

explosiveness in the run game.

And then if you give them a screen, if you give them a swing route, if you give them

a jet sweep, they can go do something with it.

That's what you need from these players.

And so you have your bell cowback, you have your third down blocking tight who can give

you enough on early downs or enough.

If it's third and seven, you can call a little draw for him or you can get in the gun and

just hand it and run inside zone, pick up three, four, five yards and get yourself into

fourth and manageable if you get the favorable look for that.

You can do enough on early downs, hand the ball to him every once in a while just to keep

defenses honest.

It's not like he's a bad running back.

He's someone who can be serviceable for you and you don't have to worry about him in

past protection.

That's the value of Chris Brooks.

Now, we talked about this speed question, Brian Gidekins loves speed.

And that means whoever they take, 52, they're going to have to have premium premium athleticism.

We're going to talk about that more next, unlike on Packers.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, March is a time to celebrate women, especially

around international women's day and to recognize just how much they carry at work in

relationships, in families and in all the unseen roles they step into every single day.

It's easy to celebrate that strength, but it's just as important to make space for their

emotional well-being.

And honestly, that goes for us too.

How can we help the people around us if we're not putting on our own oxygen masks first?

If we're not in touch with what's going on with us, therapy can help with all that

creating balance, setting healthy boundaries, and supporting overall well-being.

With over 30,000 licensed therapists and more than 6 million people served worldwide,

BetterHelp is the largest online therapy platform and it works.

They'll let a short questionnaire get matched with a licensed therapist and if it's not

the right fit switch at any time.

Your emotional well-being matters.

And support and feel lighter in therapy.

Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com, slash locked on, that's BetterHELP.com slash

locked on.

When it comes to premium draft assets, Brian Guterkinst demands athleticism, demands speed.

In his GM career, he has never drafted someone in the top 50.

Who did not have a 40-yard dash?

Who did not have something close to a complete athletic profile?

In fact, if you look at his top 50 picks, all of them not only had 40s, but jumps and

most of them had at least one of the agility, whether it was shuttle, whether it was three

cone.

So you're getting something close to a complete athletic profile.

And compared to the rest of the NFL, no one has prioritized speed quite like Brian Guterkinst.

This is from Klefta, who is a, um, an analytics compiler.

And if you, I mentioned not a single player in the top 50 that has not run a 40.

Since Brian Guterkinst has been the general manager, 30% of players taken in the top 50

have not run a 40.

You're just off the list.

You're just not going to be a grimay packer if you don't have an athletic profile in

top 50.

Now, Josh Meyers was cheating a little bit, but that was also a COVID draft.

And I think you can certainly make the case and I have made the case before when it comes

to Brian Guterkinst and the structures that they have created, the models that they've

created, the thresholds, if you want to call them that, they are better when they follow

those models.

Creed Humphrey was right there for them and had elite elite athleticism and a full athletic

profile.

The athletic profile is to stamp your evaluation.

You're seasoning on tape.

You get the athletic profile.

It fits what you saw on tape and you go, boom, that's the guy we want.

The point that I've made over and over is, it's not that they just love great athletes.

Usually the best football players are the best athletes.

Over 80% of NFL starters are 50th percentile or better athletes.

So if you're a below average athlete, chances are you're just not good enough because you're

a below average athlete to be a good, to be a starting caliber NFL player.

So it is again, the tail wagging the dog a little bit there.

If you look at the average 40 yard dash percentile of top 50 picks, Brian Guterkinst picks

are in the 82nd percentile by far the best by far the highest.

And just go back and look at the guys that he's drafted.

It's not just the first drum picks.

It's the second round picks to Christian Watson 91st percentile 40 yard dash Luke Musgrave

84th percentile 40 yard dash Alton Jenkins 88th percentile 40 yard dash Edron Cooper 91st

percentile 40 yard dash.

You're going to have to be a fast player and the guys that are like lower on the list,

Jordan Morgan 79th percentile offensive lineman.

They're willing to go a little further down the list, right?

But you know, you you look at Jordan Morgan's split.

Jordan Morgan had a 96th percentile 10 yard split.

That measures that short area explosion got to have that as an offensive lineman.

So even though his long speed was not quite as good, that first couple steps,

he's generating explosiveness with his lower body.

So as we looked toward the draft,

you're going to have to have someone who is an explosive athlete.

It's just going to be what the packers like.

And whether you care about it or not, it's clear the packers do.

And so you think about, you know, some of the players that are out there, a lot of guys

did not test.

And there are real questions about whether or not some of them will test.

Now part of that is the top guys, like if you're going to be a protected top five pick,

and there aren't really any questions about that, you don't even need to test.

Teams like it, but you don't need to do it.

Now, this is not really that kind of draft.

This first round is full of players with question marks.

And so I think you're going to ultimately get most guys deciding that they want to test.

But in the second round with that 50 second pick,

think of it like a first round pick for the packers.

It is their first pick.

And so we talked about this yesterday.

There's even more pressure on that pick because you don't have a first round pick.

The draft is a numbers game.

It is a volume game.

The more chances you have, the more likely you are to hit on somebody.

So if you're trying to game out, who the Grimit Packers are going to pick at 52,

it's going to be someone not only with a complete athletic profile or something close to it,

but someone with an excellent athletic profile,

someone who is an elite athlete and someone who in all likelihood,

not just ran the 40 yard dash, but ran really freaking fast in the 40 yard dash.

Again, you look you look around at the corners out there, for example,

there's the kid from Tennessee who tore his ACL more than a year ago and still has not run.

There are going to be if he does not run, like he was considered a top 15 top 20 kind of pick.

And if he does not run, there will be teams out there that will go, we don't care.

We saw the tape, we know we know we like him enough to make that move.

I just don't think that's going to be the Packers.

And for good or for bad, I just don't think that's going to be the Packers.

I think it's too risky for them.

And I think that that's something that, you know, we just have to reckon with

as we try and predict what's going to happen here moving forward for the Packers.

All right, back tomorrow, our Friday episode, and then we have our

Friday news dump, TBD on timing of that, because there may be a conflict that I have,

we may push that to late afternoon, something like two central instead of noon central.

So we'll figure that out and I'll make sure I'll put it out on social so you guys all know

what's going on with that. Thanks for tuning into Lacton Packers.

Make sure to subscribe and follow wherever you get podcasts.

So you always get the latest episodes.

If you never miss an episode, the Every Day or Club is built for you.

You get Lacton Packers ad free, plus members only group chat access on the discord.

Go to LactonPackers.supercast.com for that.

For those of you on video, we send you to the first ever 24 seven National NFL YouTube

channel on audio, make your second listen, Lacton NFL draft, and always stay Lacton Packers.