Rising Star Named Packers’ ‘Breakout’ Candidate for 2025

When he played, Edgerrin Cooper was exceptional. As he enters Year 2, the Green Bay Packers’ linebacker appears to be a budding star.

At The Athletic, he was named Green Bay’s breakout candidate, although Packers beat writer Matt Schneidman acknowledged the two-time Defensive Player of the Week, December/January Defensive Player of the Month and All-Rookie selection might have broken out already.

“Cooper can rush the passer and cover, and he should hardly come off the field when healthy after battling injuries and learning defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s system last season,” Schneidman wrote.

Breakout or not, Cooper should become one of Green Bay’s top defenders and most important players. As a second-round pick last year, Cooper played only 45.1 percent of the defensive snaps.

Cooper missed a chunk of training camp, which played a role in him earning only a meager role to start the season. It took until the sixth game of the season for him to play even 40 percent of the defensive snaps. He was in the ballpark of two-thirds playing time for the next several weeks before missing three games with a hamstring injury. Upon his return, he was given a similar role. Finally, in Game 16 against Minnesota and Game 17 against Chicago, he played more than 90 percent of the snaps.

Ultimately, Cooper’s production was too big to ignore. He led the entire rookie class and all NFL linebackers with 13 tackles for losses even though he played more than 41 snaps in only three games all season.

Even while averaging 35.1 snaps in his 14 games, Cooper ranked sixth on the team with 77 tackles, first with 13 TFLs, fifth with four passes defensed, fifth with 3.5 sacks and tied for second with four turnover plays (one interception, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries).

Bigger things are expected – pardon the pun.