The Green Bay Packers made the rather surprising decision during roster cutdowns to carry only four edge rushers, despite the need for reinforcements while Micah Parsons is absent. Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox Jr., and Dani Dennis-Sutton will all feature in the rotation. Collin Oliver, the presumed fifth man in, landed on injured reserve with calf and Achilles issues.
Perhaps part of the reason the Packers felt comfortable leaving his spot unfilled is that linebacker Edgerrin Cooper sure seems like a potential piece of the pass-rushing plan moving forward, making up for a minimalist depth chart at edge rusher.
Green Bay notably dabbled in bringing Cooper off the edge in training camp. He was much more of a pass-rushing threat in college at Texas A&M than in his first two NFL seasons, particularly last year. New defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon may be looking to revitalize that latent element of Cooper's game.
Even if Cooper rarely lines up on the outside in practice - he'll still be primarily an off-ball linebacker - Gannon and the Packers can benefit from blitzing him a lot more often than he did under former DC Jeff Hafley. Effectively, Cooper can fill in for the fifth edge rusher they left off the roster.
Cooper can give the Packers another quasi-edge defender
Of course, Cooper's role is only an auxiliary consideration in the roster calculus. Oliver's injury is the biggest factor. Undrafted rookie Nyjalik Kelly didn't show the Packers enough to keep him on the 53. Josh Sweat rumors never materialized. Options were limited.
It's also a testament to Green Bay's confidence in Sorrell and Dennis-Sutton despite their lack of experience.
With those concessions acknowledged, however, it's hard to believe Cooper isn't part of the plan to offset Parsons' absence. He played only 60-odd pass-rush snaps last season, recording half a sack plus 12 PFF pressures. He can offer a lot more than that.
Cooper is simply too explosive to be maximized as a traditional inside linebacker. Especially with a veteran leader like Zaire Franklin as the 'green-dot' defender, he should be free to create more havoc at the line of scrimmage rather than having to stay back in the middle of the field.
Using Cooper more as a pass rusher will also give Gannon more creative leeway in blitzing disguises; it will be difficult to gauge whether Cooper is coming on a blitz or dropping back in coverage.
Any fifth outside rusher would only be rotationally involved, anyway, so having Cooper help fill that role on third-and-long or blitz situations almost gives Gannon two defenders in one. Using Cooper as a 'free square' pass-rusher makes fitting together a 53-piece roster puzzle that much easier.
That the Packers uncharacteristically settled for a four-man edge rotation certainly suggests that Cooper's outside reps this summer were more than just an empty experiment. They'll need all hands on deck for as long as Parsons is out.
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