Beating Matt LaFleur just got a little tougher for Ben Johnson

"And to be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year."

That was Ben Johnson's mic-drop line that would have brought the house down had they allowed Bears fans to attend Johnson's introductory press conference in January. In fact, the Lions were 5-1 against LaFleur and the Packers in Johnson's three seasons as offensive coordinator, including 3-0 at Lambeau Field.

Beating LaFleur twice a year just got a little bit tougher for Ben Johnson, with the Packers' acquisition of All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons in a trade with the Cowboys. When Johnson was with the Lions, quarterback Jared Goff was sacked eight times for 44 yards in losses in those six games against the Packers. Caleb Williams had 44 or more sack yards in four separate games last year.

But that was in a discombobulated offense with a shaky offensive line under Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown last year. Johnson changes everything, right? We'll see about that. In five of those six games against the Packers with the Lions, Johnson had former first-round draft pick Taylor Decker at left tackle. This year with the Bears he's got ... TBA, just three days before the start of Week 1 of the regular season.

Johnson has looked, sounded and acted like the real deal from the day he was introduced. But already he has a problem with the Bears that he did not have with the Lions — and in a critical, foundational spot.

That the Bears' offensive line was upgraded in the offseason was assumed when general manager Ryan Poles traded for left guard Joe Thuney and right guard Jonah Jackson and signed center Drew Dalman in free agency. If Johnson can make the fluid left tackle spot a non-factor, it will be the first indication he can work the same magic with the Bears that he did with the Lions. But if not, Micah Parsons will be there twice a year to remind him that beating Matt LaFleur might be a bigger challenge than it was in Detroit. And maybe whether he solves the offensive line issues or not.

The Parsons acquisition might not have the same impact as defensive end Reggie White, who invigorated not only the Packers' defense but the entire organization with the power of his personality and his devastating pass rush prowess when he arrived in Green Bay in 1993. But unless Parsons breaks down physically — either by injury or losing a step — this figures to be a big win for the Packers, who ranked eighth in the NFL in scoring defense last year in Jeff Hafley's first season as coordinator.

The Packers, without a big pass rush, were no sure thing to continue the progress under Hafley, but Parsons is a pass-rushing force who could make every other player on that defense better. As Packers defensive line coach (and future Bears defensive coordinator) Greg Blache said when the Packers signed White, "My job just got a whole lot easier. Our team needed two things — a pass rusher and a defensive leader. We just got both."

Parsons isn't the leader White was. His impact as a "multiplier" is almost strictly as a dominant pass-rushing force on the field. And it will be interesting to see exactly how he fits in with the Packers and playing in Green Bay. But at 26 (White was 31 when he signed with the Packers in 1993), with four seasons of consistently elite production, he can have an impact in the short term that will make the entire deal worth it. If the bar is set at Khalil Mack's overall impact with the Bears in 2018-21, I'll take the over. Way over.

As for the Bears, their counter-move is a familiar one — Ben Johnson giving the Bears' offense an even bigger bump than Micah Parsons gives the Packers' defense. It'll be an interesting challenge throughout Johnson's first season, but especially against the Packers on Dec. 7 at Lambeau Field and Dec. 30 at Soldier Field. And let the record show that while Ben Johnson is 5-1 against Matt LaFleur, he's 0-2 against Micah Parsons.

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