The Green Bay Packers traded their 2026 and 2027 first round draft picks for defensive end Micah Parsons.

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Malachi Lawrence might become a great edge rusher for the Dallas Cowboys.

Makai Lemon could develop into an elite receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles.

And there’s a chance NFC North foes like Detroit (offensive tackle Blake Miller), Minnesota (defensive tackle Caleb Banks) and Chicago (safety Dillon Thieneman) found themselves future standouts.

Those are all ifs, maybes, question marks.

Green Bay Packers edge Micah Parsons is one of the top-three defensive players in football. That’s an absolute.

So while it was pained Brian Gutekunst to not have a first round pick in Thursday’s NFL Draft, Green Bay’s general manager knew he’d already won the draft.

“We got better,” Gutekunst said. “With this particular pick, we got better a whole year earlier.”

Eight months ago, Gutekunst traded his 2026 and 2027 first round draft picks, as well as defensive tackle Kenny Clark, to Dallas for Parsons.

That pick wound up being No. 20 in this year’s draft, which the Cowboys traded to the Eagles. Philadelphia then selected Lemon, and three picks later, Dallas chose Lawrence.

Parsons, on the other hand, immediately became the most dynamic pass rusher in Green Bay since Hall of Famer Reggie White and made everyone on the Packers’ defense better.

Parsons had 12.5 sacks in Green Bay’s first 13 games last season before tearing his left ACL in Week 15 at Denver. That made Parsons the first player in NFL history to record at least 12 sacks in each of his first five NFL seasons.

Parsons led the NFL with 60 pressures heading into Week 15, 2025, which was 10 more than any player in football. That was also the most pressures by a player through 13 games since 2018.

Green Bay was 9-3-1 at the time Parsons was injured and challenging for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. After Parsons was hurt, the Packers imploded and went 0-5 down the stretch.

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Parsons will likely don a gold jacket one day and the Packers added their most dynamic defensive player since White (1993-98) or Charles Woodson (2006-12).

“Looking back and doing what we did, I certainly don't think there's any players that were in this draft that can compete with that one,” Gutekunst said of Parsons.

That doesn’t mean Thursday night was easy for Gutekunst and the Packers.

Green Bay began the draft without a first round pick for the first time since 1986. And Gutekunst admitted it was tough not to be an active participant.

“I can’t say it was productive,” Gutekunst said of the evening. “But we got through it.”

Green Bay will have the 20^th pick in Friday’s second round — No. 52 overall — and eight selections between Rounds 2-7. So things will be back to normal for Gutekunst and the Packers starting tonight.

Gutekunst has the ammunition to move up in Round 2 if he chooses. He could also trade back to acquire more picks for a roster that has its fair share of holes.

“We're confident we're going to get a really good player if we stick at (No. 52) 52,” Gutekunst said. “Even if we move back, we feel really good about how the board is, and then we're going to get a good player that will help us.

“So we're excited. I know we’re all itching after sitting through that today. I think we're all itching to get after it (Friday).”

What made Gutekunst’s Thursday night far more palatable, though, is knowing he’d already won the draft.