The NFL’s Week 4 Sunday night drama can’t be much more intense: The Green Bay Packers (2-1) vs. the Dallas Cowboys (1-2). The most intriguing part of this clash is Micah Parsons, who is playing at AT&T Stadium for the first time as a visitor. Once the heartbeat of the Cowboys’ defense, the two-time All-Pro now lines up in Packers green, his homecoming charged with tension, emotion, and an opponent who knows him best.

Micah Parsons has done his best to downplay the swirl of attention surrounding his first matchup against Dallas, but he didn’t hide how strange it feels. “It’s going to be painful,” he said to the Associated Press when asked about sacking Dak Prescott, his friend and former teammate. “That’s my guy. He was always like a good mentor for me. But you know how it is. He always told me if I ever faced him that it’ll be a great matchup, so I’m excited to see what Sunday brings.”

Prescott is in his 10th season with the Cowboys, four of them playing alongside Micah Parsons. Together, they helped Dallas reach the 2022 divisional round, where they lost to the 49ers. So, now as the matchup is going to take place on September 28, Parsons emphasized he’s approaching it as “just another game,” but it’s also the first time he’ll play in AT&T Stadium as an opponent. “I accepted my fate weeks ago when the trade happened,” he stated. “

For me, it’s about playing another game and just doing what I do best … I think the media and the fans are trying to blow it up to be such a big thing. But I just look at it as just another game at AT&T.” His connection to Prescott only stacks another layer onto an already rich night.

The Cowboys’ defense hasn’t been the same without Parsons. Jerry Jones traded him to Green Bay a few weeks before the NFL season opener. There he broke the contract record, and deprived Dallas of its most devastating pass rusher. The statistics speak for themselves: Dallas is close to last in the league in yards surrendered (397.7 per game), passing yards surrendered (288 per game), and points conceded (30.7 per game). Compare that with the Parsons era, when the Cowboys were in the top five in sacks and regularly harassed opposing QBs.

For Green Bay, the Parsons trade has been revolutionary. Missing all of training camp and showing up just in time for Week 1, he’s been a force with one sack in his first game, and he has already recorded 15 quarterback pressures in just three games. Pro Football Focus has him graded as the No. 3 edge defender in the league with a 90.1 mark overall, including a 91.5 pass-rush mark. Even on a short snap count, Parsons leans the field and controls protection schemes. Against Prescott, the stakes are higher: his pressures have the potential to flip a close game in the national spotlight.

Parsons has also come to love his new locker room. “Besides the fans, just the teammates, the support staff … they made this transition so great and I’m just extremely honored and blessed to be with such a great group of guys that want to win,” he explained. But not only Parsons, even Jerry Jones might be waiting for him to come at AT&T Stadium.

Jerry Jones is wishing Micah Parsons a good luck?

Whereas Parsons has been concentrating on football, Jerry Jones has embraced gamesmanship. In an interview with 105.3 The Fan, the Cowboys owner gave his old pass rusher credit, but left it clear he’s hoping he will fail big time against Dallas. “I think the world of Micah. I might say I wish him well but it’s obvious I don’t this weekend in terms of Green Bay winning the ballgame,” Jones stated.

Jones intimated that Dallas will attempt to take advantage of Parsons’ perceived vulnerabilities. “He’s going to make some plays no matter how you play him,” Jones said. “But when I saw people play us well with Micah in the game, and it did happen, then obviously we’ll be looking to try to run those kinds of plays [against him].”

Cleveland achieved a late-game breakthrough against Green Bay in Week 3, as thier running backs averaged 2.5 yards per carry, the second-lowest rate in Week 3. And Dallas might see this as a template. But Green Bay’s flexibility to play heavier personnel and modify fronts might render those strategies less effective than Jones anticipates.

Jones has validated the trade as a “deliberate….well-thought-out move” intended to shore up Dallas’ run defense and potential playoff prospects. Trading Parsons for two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark sent a message from Jones that he wanted to rebalance the roster. Three games into the season, however, Dallas’ defense has displayed more question marks than answers, which makes Sunday’s game feel like an early referendum on the trade.