Most of the conversation about the Green Bay Packers' defense this season has been pretty singular.
There was really only one topic worth chewing on for multiple months – and now that Jaire Alexander is gone (bad!), there's room for a more ... encouraging? ... conversation to take its place (good!).
What that'll end up being probably depends a whole lot on the first week of beat writer reports from training camp, but if we wanted to get a head start on guessing who now may get the type of attention that star players get, NFL.com's here to help.
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This week, they dropped a big list of 'guaranteed risers,' which is an impressively confident way to title a list of already-very-good players around the league. The best news? It doesn't take much of a scroll to find the Packers' next (apparent) star: linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.
The Edgerrin Cooper hype is about to get a whole lot louder for Packers in 2025
Here's what they have to say about the second-year linebacker:
"He collected 3.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, an interception and 77 tackles while playing just 45 percent of the team's defensive snaps last season. He was an absolute menace, and that was before adding about 10 pounds of muscle this offseason," writes Marc Ross of NFL.com.
"Think of what Cooper -- who looks as explosive as ever, per head coach Matt LaFleur -- can do in a full-time role for Jeff Hafley's unit. He has the ability to become an All-Pro player and should take the defense to the next level in his second season if he can stay healthy."
I know Cooper was good last year, but seeing those stats while only playing *45 percent* of the team's defensive snaps really puts it into a new perspective.
Calling an All-Pro shot in Year 2 is as ambitious a prediction as you'll see – especially on the league's own website – but that speaks to just how high Cooper's ceiling really could be. And there are no contract disputes in sight! At least for now. (Sorry, sorry.)