By all accounts, Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper had an excellent sophomore season. Perhaps he didn't take the ceiling-scraping jump some hoped for, but it's easy to forget how effective he still was. Pro Football Focus graded him 16th out of 88 qualified linebackers last season. That'll do just fine.
For his part, Cooper can't wait to get back on the football field, a sentiment he expressed, fittingly, in response to an old Twitter post of his season highlights.
"Mannn I'm itchinnnn to get out there," Cooper wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Well, the Packers can't wait, either, and neither can fans. It's hard not to be excited, wondering what Year 3 holds for the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate.
There's no time like the present for Edgerrin Cooper to realize his potential
Cooper was still very productive last season, just not in the same way. In particular, he made much less of an impact in the pass rush, and that's not just because Micah Parsons was gobbling up every pass-rush opportunity.
After recording 3.5 sacks as a rookie, a solid figure for an off-ball linebacker who played fewer than 500 snaps, Cooper managed only 0.5. His second-ranked PFF pass-rush grade in 2024, a 90.2, plummeted to 66.7, good for 35th. By measures like passer rating and completion percentage, Cooper was more vulnerable in coverage, too.
Part of that has to do with how the Packers used him, lumping more responsibility on Cooper to oversee the middle of the field. He did improve his tackling, missing only 9.9 percent of opportunities compared to 11.1, per Pro Football Reference data. Whatever his shortcomings in other aspects of coverage, he limited pass-catchers to 4.8 yards per target.
Most importantly for his Year 3 prospects, Packers fans haven't forgotten how explosive he looked in his NFL debut, when Cooper finished sixth in DROY voting. As he enters his penultimate year under contract, 2026 will be a big season not just for his impact on Green Bay's defense, but as a predictor of how lucrative his next contract will be. Cooper extension talks will be a storyline next offseason, and he has everything to gain by balling out before then.
Already a standout young player, Cooper has flashed enough upside for the Packers to remain confident that his future All-Pro self is simply waiting to be unlocked. Getting Cooper back on the field won't just satisfy his itch, it will tell the team whether he's ready to take the next step ahead of a critical season in his career.
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