Green Bay’s defense has pressured quarterbacks on 42.2% of dropbacks, fifth in the NFL. Its blitz rate is 33.2%, 13th. Those numbers describe different things: one measures how often the quarterback is disrupted, while the other tracks how often extra rushers are sent. For Dallas, that distinction matters more than the familiar Micah Parsons subplot.
Dak Prescott’s Thursday assessment of Sunday night’s visit to Green Bay put the issue plainly. After Tampa Bay pressured him 13 times on Oct. 8, Prescott expects the Packers to test Dallas in the same general area. He also has reason to respect the coordinator designing that challenge.
Jonathan Gannon, now in charge of Green Bay’s defense, previously oversaw an Arizona group that made Prescott’s afternoon distinctly uncomfortable.
Prescott’s expectation does not reveal Green Bay’s call sheet, and it should not be treated as a prediction of every blitz. It does establish the correct concern for Dallas: pressure can arrive in more than one form. The Packers do not need to send extra defenders on every important down to affect Prescott’s timing.
Their season pressure rate says the front has produced disruption often enough on its own terms to make protection the central question.
That is why Parsons’ absence belongs in the middle of this story rather than at its center. Parsons remains on PUP after the ACL and meniscus injuries he suffered in December 2025, so he will not be available Sunday. His absence removes a prominent defender from the matchup and changes the personalities involved. It does not explain away Green Bay’s current pressure production.
The Packers have reached 42.2% without Parsons on the field. That does not prove they are better without him, nor does it make his absence harmless. It does mean Dallas cannot approach Sunday as though removing one prominent name will make the pocket safe.
Gannon has built a pressure problem that exists independently of that missing matchup, and Prescott’s warning is more useful than any attempt to turn the game into a reunion narrative that will not happen.
Gannon’s recent history gives the concern a concrete reference point. In 2025, when he was Arizona’s head coach, the Cardinals beat Dallas 27-17 after pressuring Prescott 15 times and sacking him five times. The circumstances have changed: Gannon now has a different job, and Green Bay has different personnel.
One game cannot forecast Sunday. Still, it shows that a Gannon defense has already found a way to keep pressure attached to Prescott over the course of a game.
