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Cooper was a weapon in the passing game for Jeff Hafley last season and he’s looking for big things in his second year.
It certainly looks and feels like the Green Bay Packers found a star last season in linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.
The second-round pick out of Texas A&M started his rookie season relatively quietly, never hitting 40 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in the first five games of the season. But starting in week six, he was never under 57 percent when he played, finishing the year with every-down workloads in weeks 17 and 18 and in the Wild Card playoffs.
Through that time, Cooper proved to be a talented and versatile weapon for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, and his blitzing ability was as impressive as his run defense and pass coverage. Cooper racked up 3.5 sacks and 8 QB hits in his 15 games (including the playoff contest), and his 8 pressures came on just 32 blitz opportunities — a truly impressive rate.
Cooper also put up solid numbers in coverage last season. Although he allowed about 65% of targets into his coverage to be completed, he gave up just a single touchdown and added an interception for a passer rating allowed of just 78.8. That was by far the best of any linebacker who played significant time, with Quay Walker allowing a 96.7 rating and Isaiah McDuffie giving up a rating of 126.6 (a number that ballooned due to five touchdowns).
For now, Cooper is actually a fun long-shot bet for a Defensive Player of the Year award, as he’s getting 200:1 odds. Hopefully we’ll also get to see Cooper record a sack or two in week 8 when the Packers pay a visit to an old...”friend.” Yeah, sure, that’s the word that we’ll use to describe him.
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