GREEN BAY – While nothing is guaranteed, it’s a decent bet for a rookie. Cooper Edgerrin He will work his way into the first-team defense as a linebacker in training camp.
He made a good impression in that regard during the minicamp to close out the offseason program.
Without divulging any schematic details, head coach Matt LaFleur noted after the final practice of minicamp that he called a play designed to fool Cooper in some way, but the second-round draft pick out of Texas A&M didn’t take the bait.
“I thought we were going to have him ready and he did great,” LaFleur said. “I was teasing the other coaches, ‘Have you seen that play before?’ but they didn’t.
“So that’s a credit to him and how committed he’s been and how focused he’s been over the course of the offseason.”
Cooper has made his assimilation into the NFL look perhaps easier than it has been by absorbing as much as he can from new coordinator Jeff Hafley’s defense.
The 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cooper was the first off-ball linebacker taken in the entire draft, 45th overall. He showed off his impressive speed during the spring. That’s his most notable physical trait, particularly when asked to attack. Eight sacks in his final college season was an impressive number for his position.
But Cooper admitted it was taking a while for the mental part of his game to catch up with the physical. He’s still on track, aiming to make more progress by the time training camp rolls around.
“I feel like, especially this last week, week and a half, I’ve been able to relax mentally,” Cooper said during minicamp. “I’m starting to get back into it. So right now, I’m just playing. I feel good because I don’t have to think as much and I’m just doing what I do.”
His potential teammate in the middle of the defense, third-year pro Quay Walker, has been impressed and excited by what he’s seen. Walker is a bit bigger (6’4″, 241) than Cooper, with a similar athletic profile, and he’s the leader of a linebacking corps that will also feature veterans. Isaiah McDuffie, Eric Wilson and third-round rookie pick Ty’Ron Hopper.
Hafley’s base defense will deploy three linebackers, but in a league dominated by nickelbacks, the Packers will more often than not have two on the field. Speed and range are at a premium, so those two can cover a lot of ground, attack gaps and drop back to cover when needed.
“He’s showing flashes, coming down the slope, playing, flying all over the place,” Walker said. “I just tell him, ‘Don’t think, bro. Just fly all over the place. If you make a mistake, it is what it is. You’re a rookie. Just take what you can learn … and go from there.'”
Cooper plans to continue learning during whatever downtime the team has this summer. Studying the playbook and self-evaluating are on the agenda, as is training for real football, rather than all the pre-draft testing rookies focus on for months after their college careers end.
As for the playbook, one thing Cooper appreciates is having Hafley and position coach Anthony Campanile explain to him not only the concepts and responsibilities within the scheme, but also the reasons behind alignments and assignments. That has helped with the typical mental deluge of new material any rookie must process, particularly one who could be in the starting lineup right away.
“One hundred percent,” Cooper said. “It makes a huge difference when you know why you’re doing something on the field, because you start putting the pieces together and now you can sit back, relax your eyes and play.”
The comfort level he left minicamp with is the same level he’s expected to have entering training camp. LaFleur will surely put him through more tests.
“It’s a critical time for him,” LaFleur said before the players left for the break. “He’s got to continue to build on the foundation he’s laid and hopefully he’ll come back even better and have a better knowledge base on what’s required of him.”