Acme Packing Company
Linebacker is the weirdest position on the Packers right now.
It hasn’t quite arrived, but isn’t quite in transition either. It seems like the Packers have been trying to solve a problem there for most of a decade and haven’t quite landed on a solution. And for that matter, the answer to whatever question they’re asking has probably changed several times as they’ve transitioned from Mike Pettine to Joe Barry to Jeff Hafley and now to Jonathan Gannon.
What are they trying to achieve? What is the vision at linebacker? “To have good ones” is about all I can come up with when looking back on Brian Gutekunst’s acquisitions there over the years. He signed Christian Kirksey to replace Blake Martinez, then Kirksey, true to form, got hurt. Gutekunst and the Packers fell into De’Vondre Campbell, then doubled down after he had the year of his life and pretty much immediately got burned. They tried to pair Campbell with Quay Walker, and when that pairing failed, they tried to pair Walker with Edgerrin Cooper. Now that pairing, too, has run its course, and now they’re teaming Cooper up with former Jonathan Gannon collaborator Zaire Franklin.
None of that adds up to a coherent philosophy at linebacker other than trying to find the best pair of guys you can to soak up the majority of the snaps which, to be fair, is a strategy worth trying. But it’s brought the Packers to the point where they’ve got a big conglomeration of guys and no real clear present or future in which to use them.
Consider Franklin, for instance. A full-time starter in Indianapolis since 2022, he had a down year in 2025 by just about any measure, and it’s a fair question to ask whether we should expect more down years now that he’s on the wrong side of 30, especially since Franklin is not exactly a physical marvel to begin with. If he’s lost a step (or loses one now, or maybe a couple), what’s left?
But on the flip side, could Green Bay be just the right spot to reclaim his career? After all, he’ll be working with Gannon, a former boss of his during his time in Indianapolis. Might Gannon’s defense be a better fit for his skills than what Lou Anarumo ran in Indianapolis? The Colts defense struggled across the board. Could that be exculpatory for Franklin? It’s at least possible.
And what of Edgerrin Cooper? Recently voted one of the ten best linebackers in the NFL, Cooper had a much different season in 2025 than he did in 2024. Not worse, just different. After being cut loose to be the heat-seeking missile his 40-time would suggest he can be as a rookie, Cooper played a much more conservative, coverage-oriented role in 2025 as the Packers relied on Micah Parsons to do most of their pass rushing. That’s never a bad idea, but it came at the expense of Cooper’s best attributes.
So which version will we...
