EDGERRIN COOPER’S RETURN ADDS INTERESTING WRINKLE TO PACKERS’ LINEBACKER PICTURE

Three weeks without football just about drove Edgerrin Cooper crazy.

“I think that was the longest time I’ve been without playing football. Just missing out and stuff like that, it was mentally tough,” he told reporters Wednesday. “Sometimes things happen, but it’s about being a pro, just have to do what you can do.”

What he could do was mental reps. A lot of them. Until his return to the field this week, Cooper had spent all of August just watching the defense, listening in on playcalls and mentally working through his checklist of responsibilities as he scanned the offense.

“I had a green dot [the radio used to send in calls to the defense] so I was able to look at the offense and see what I had and learn my assignments. You don’t want to stay out of that mental preparation too much because getting back out there could be tough, not being used to what you’re seeing.”

It’s a far cry from how Cooper typically plays. Every scouting report on Cooper, official and otherwise, mentioned one thing about him: speed. His whole game is predicated on running fast and hitting hard, and he used his best attribute to great effect at Texas A&M, routinely making plays behind the line of scrimmage. He led the Aggies in tackles for loss in 2022 with eight, then led the entire SEC in the same category with 17 tackles for loss in 2023. He threw in eight sacks, two forced fumbles, and two passes defensed to round out his first-team All-American season. Edgerrin Cooper makes plays, and he makes them fast.

And now his return to the Packers’ linebacker room could add some much-needed playmaking ability. With respect to Isaiah McDuffie and Eric Wilson, who have taken the bulk of starting reps so far next to Quay Walker in the Packers’ base defense so far, the Packers wanted more from their linebackers than they got last year. Enter Cooper and fellow 2024 draftee Ty’Ron Hopper, who, like Cooper, has been praised by the Packers decision makers for his athleticism and playmaking ability.

Hopper himself is recently back from injury and made his preseason debut on Sunday, piling up 11 tackles during the Packers’ loss to the Broncos. It’s fair to question the value of counting stats during the preseason in general or even the value of Hopper’s performance specifically (Pro Football Focus gave Hopper a grade of 42.3 for the day, third worst on the defense). But at least he was getting to the ball, which is more than can be said for most of the rest of the defense.

In any case, Cooper rejoins the Packers just when they could use someone of his unique skills to pair with Quay Walker. If Cooper can play like the Packers think he can, he’ll be the best running mate Walker has had during his still-young NFL career. De’Vondre Campbell was unable to recapture his 2021 form in either 2022 or 2023, showing the effects of age and injury in a scheme that wasn’t forgiving to any kind of decline. Cooper, should he be able to deploy his speed to the same effect in the NFL that he did in college, should make plenty of plays on his own while also freeing up Walker to cause as much havoc as he can. And, lest you forget, Walker is every bit the athlete that Cooper is, though Cooper would probably point out that his 40-yard dash time was faster, albeit by only one hundredth of a second.

Cooper’s role is still a projection, and he doesn’t seem likely to play much, if at all, in this weekend’s final preseason game. It could be a few weeks into the regular season before we see the Packers’ vision at linebacker actually play out on the field. But that vision is a tantalizing one: two long, athletic linebackers making plays in an aggressive defense manned by a capable defensive coordinator. If the Packers are excited about that, it’s easy to see why.

2024-08-22T13:04:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd