Packers Get Javon Hargrave Back as Micah Parsons’ Week 6 Target Comes Into Focus
The Green Bay Packers got a little healthier this weekend, and the timing matters more than it might look on the surface. Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave came off the physically unable to perform list Sunday and returned to practice for the first time in training camp, according to Yahoo Sports. He’d missed the first eight practices of camp with a knee injury.
Hargrave downplayed the whole thing before he was even activated. USA Today Network reporter Ryan Wood posted on X that the knee issue that put Hargrave on PUP was just a “flare up” from offseason conditioning, and that the veteran wasn’t worried about it going forward. Hargrave backed that up himself.
“If we were playing tomorrow, I’d be playing tomorrow,” Hargrave said.
That’s the kind of thing a player says when he’s not actually banged up. Green Bay’s coaching staff seems to agree — head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters Hargrave was among the players cleared to return to practice, per ClutchPoints.
Why Hargrave’s health matters right now
Hargrave signed a two-year, $23 million deal with Green Bay this offseason after spending 2025 with the Minnesota Vikings, where he started 15 of 16 games and posted 3.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He’s entering his 11th NFL season, and the Packers didn’t bring him in to sit — he’s expected to start and anchor the interior line rotation.
That matters because Green Bay’s defensive front is about to be tested without its best player. Micah Parsons, still working back from a torn ACL and meniscus suffered in Week 15 last season, opened camp on the PUP list. The Packers have historically followed a nine-month no-football rule after ACL surgery, and Parsons didn’t have surgery until Dec. 30 — pushing his earliest practice return to around Sept. 30, per reporting from The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.
Parsons himself put a number on it this week, calling a Week 6 return against his former team, the Cowboys, “very realistic” — while cautioning it’s not locked in.
“It’s not off the board, but we’ve got to put the work in,” Parsons said, via FOX Sports.
That Week 6 date lands Oct. 18, meaning the Packers are almost certainly playing their first five games — including a Week 3 Thursday-nighter at Atlanta and a tough early stretch against the Vikings and Bears — without their best defensive player. Barryn Sorrell has been taking first-team reps in Parsons’ spot, with Lukas Van Ness and offseason addition Dani Dennis-Sutton also covering the gap on the edge.
The bigger picture on the D-line
None of that replaces what Parsons brings as a pass rusher. But a healthy Hargrave, plus Devonte Wyatt now fully back after missing the end of last season, plus third-round rookie Chris McClellan, gives Green Bay’s front four a floor it wouldn’t otherwise have to open the year. The Packers also traded away Colby Wooden this offseason, putting more weight on this specific group — Hargrave being ready by Week 1 isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s closer to a necessity given how thin the alternative looks.
It’s a similar theme to what LaFleur flagged after Family Night, the team’s open camp scrimmage. He was blunt that the team played sloppy, calling it the group’s heaviest workload of camp so far, per the team’s official recap. There were highlights — Jordan Love connected with rookie receiver Matthew Golden on a 50-plus-yard touchdown, and Golden said the two are still building chemistry — but it’s a reminder Green Bay is working out kinks across the roster, not just on defense, with the preseason opener bearing down.
What’s next
Green Bay opens the preseason Aug. 13 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Getting Hargrave back on the practice field gives him a real runway to be ready, even if the team likely manages his workload in exhibition games like it would any veteran. The more relevant marker is Week 1 at Minnesota — if Hargrave is full-go by then, it takes at least some pressure off a defense that will already be without Parsons and leaning on a less experienced edge group to start the year.
