New Packers defense has to find a way to weaponize Edgerrin Cooper

As a rookie, former second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper offered Green Bay tantalizing potential that he didn't turn into a star player in 2025. Can a new staff unlock him?

When Edgerrin Cooper lined up over the center, there’s no way Trevor Lawrence thought the rookie linebacker could run with Christian Kirk down the middle. Cooper feinted like he would blitz up the middle, but instead tore off to run the post in a Cover-2 scheme. Lawrence fired a beautiful seam ball, but Cooper somehow caught up to Kirk, forcing his arm through the ball to break up the pass.

Evan Williams said he wasn’t sure there was another linebacker in the NFL who could have pulled it off.

That was in 2024, Cooper’s rookie season. One of the first, and only, complaints about Jeff Hafley’s tenure as defensive coordinator focused on Cooper’s playing time early in the season. Why wasn’t this top-50 pick playing over a journeyman like Isaiah McDuffie?

Eventually, injuries forced Hafley’s hand, and by the end of the season, Cooper spearheaded a defense playing way above its talent level.

Naturally, 2025 would be the next step in his vertiginous ride toward superstardom. He’d ascend into the tier of linebackers where precious few others reside: a true field-tilting player. But that didn’t happen. For whatever reason, Hafley used Cooper less as a blitzer (likely to scheme around freeing up Micah Parsons), and Cooper’s usually sure hands as a tackler betrayed him.