Packers might have reached turning point at linebacker
Edgerrin Cooper's ascent merits a chance to stay on the field for more than just 60% of the Packers' defensive snaps.
Good morning!
The Green Bay Packers notched a win against an inferior Jacksonville Jaguars squad on Sunday, albeit not in the fashion most expected. The victory also might have come at a significant cost, as the Packers will enter another cycle of daily updates about their quarterback's health.
Today's edition of The Leap details the situation under center and details why a key defensive position can expect to turn over in the near future.
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The Packers have bought themselves flexibility regarding Jordan Love's latest injury
Jason B. Hirschhorn: For the second time this season, Jordan Love has a lower-body injury that threatens to sideline him for the Packers' next game. This time around, he appeared to hurt himself while landing awkwardly on one leg during a rollout. While it initially seemed that Love had tweaked his knee or leg, the team later clarified that he injured his groin.
"Obviously, high level of concern any time a guy is in there," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said of Jordan Love's injury. "He did it early in that first drive. I think everybody could see him struggling to move around. It got to a point where we didn't feel like, and he didn't feel like, he could protect himself."
The full extent of Love's injury remains unclear at time of writing. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported that the quarterback will undergo tests on Monday to confirm the severity, but the Packers believe he avoided a long-term issue. His potential absence comes as Green Bay prepares for a huge NFC North showdown with the Detroit Lions, the winner of which will end Week 9 as the division leader and the inside track to the conference's No. 1 seed.
Regardless of whether Love plays on Sunday, the Packers have bought themselves valuable flexibility for the situation. Their 6-2 record places them among the NFC's top teams and provides cushion between them and many of their top conference competitors. Even a loss to the Lions on Sunday wouldn't represent too significant of a setback. Accordingly, Green Bay can afford to handle Love's latest injury conservatively.
The schedule provides a strong argument for doing so. While the Packers certainly covet a win over Detroit and Love gives them the best chance to emerge victorious, their bye arrives the following week, providing a chance for the quarterback to put 21 days between games. Considering that Love still hadn't entirely recovered from his earlier knee sprain, this sequence could finally let him get over the injury hump and hit the second half of the season without any meaningful limitations.
And the Packers wouldn't effectively forfeit to the Lions by sitting Love. Malik Willis, the signal-caller acquired shortly before Week 1, again proved himself a worthy investment by general manager Brian Gutekunst. Without the benefit of a week to prep as the starter and despite a game plan built around Love's skill set, Willis once again performed like a more-than-capable quarterback. As he demonstrated in Jacksonville, he would give Green Bay a chance to win even against Detroit.
"I can't say enough great things about Malik Willis, the job that he's able to do to go in there," LaFleur said Sunday. "The moment's never too big for him, and he made a lot of big-time plays in this game."
Ultimately, Green Bay's medical staff will shape how the team approaches Love's injury this week. Perhaps he might feel no worse for wear by the end of the week, or maybe he won't recover enough to play regardless. However, if Love's health falls somewhere between those extremes, the Packers have given themselves viable options in a way that few franchises do when with their starting signal-caller. In a sport so often determined by attrition, this can prove the difference between falling apart and going on to compete for a championship.
The Packers might have reached a turning point at linebacker
JBH: Even before the 2024 season kicked off, the Packers already knew their linebacking corps would endure some trial and tribulations. Quay Walker had yet to play up to his first-round billing while veterans Isaiah McDuffie and Eric Wilson lacked the prototypical size-speed combination for the position. And while rookie Edgerrin Cooper checked a lot of boxes for Green Bay, the coaching staff didn't feel comfortable committing to him as a full-time player so early in his career.
Cooper has made strides in recent weeks when it comes to workload, however. He played more than 60% of defensive snaps in Weeks 6 and 7, producing four combined stops and yielding only one long reception. Cooper had already produced splash plays, but now he had given the Packers some meaningful evidence that he could do more than fill in situationally.
All of which led up to arguably the rookie's performance on Sunday, arguably his most promising to date. With Walker sidelined with a concussion, the Packers still leaned mostly on Wilson (appeared on every defensive snap, per Pro Football Focus) and McDuffie (38 snaps). But Cooper didn't trail far behind (34 snaps) and delivered one of the game's biggest plays.
With the Jaguars showing life in the fourth quarter and the Packers in need of a stop, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley rushed Cooper up the A gap as part of a simulated pressure. The rookie powered through veteran center Mitch More and took Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence by surprise. Not only did Cooper sack Lawrence, but he stripped the ball as well. Defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt recovered moments later for the team's second turnover of the day.
The takeaway understandably garnered most of the attention, but Cooper quietly had one of his better performances in pass coverage. The Jaguars didn't beat him to the deep or intermediate area at any point in the game, and the longest reception he allowed (Brenton Strange's 21-yarder) came almost entirely after the catch. Cooper also recorded multiple stops besides his strip-sack of Lawrence.
Even with Walker likely to return by Week 9, the Packers have fewer reasons than ever to limit Cooper's playing time. The rookie makes more plays than the other linebackers on a per-down basis and has now shown that increased exposure hasn't blunted his impact. He has the size to hold up against the run, the range to handle the coverage responsibilities for the position, and the athleticism to improve the pass rush. Green Bay's other linebackers can produce in some of those areas, but none can consistently do so in all.
At this point, giving Cooper more opportunities doesn't just help the Packers' long-term ambitions, it makes the most sense for right now too.
I agree that the Packers have some flexibility to not play Love if he needs to get healthy next week, but I'm more concerned about where our secondary is going to be without Jaire or Evan Williams.