GREEN BAY — Evan Williams wasn’t surprised. Neither was Javon Bullard. 

They’d both seen as rookies in 2024 how their fellow draft classmate, Edgerrin Cooper, could tilt the field in the Green Bay Packers defense’s direction.  

So to them, what the third-year inside linebacker did in the Packers’ season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday — registering a sack, two tackles for loss, a quarterback hit, a quarterback pressure and tied for the team lead in tackles (seven) while playing all 65 defensive snaps — was merely a return to form in the eyes of the two third-year safeties.

“That’s my guy. He means everything,” said Williams, a fourth-round pick in that 2024 draft after Cooper and Bullard went in the second round. “He’s a tone-setter. We talk about tone-setters as something that’s imperative to a team. He’s a guy you can always count on to set the tempo immediately — first snap to the last, he’s somebody that’s flying to the ball [with] reckless abandon.

“You know on any given play, he’s going to be doing exactly that – flying to the ball, pursuing from the backside and it makes our job [as safeties] a lot easier when you have somebody being really decisive up front. It definitely cleans up the picture for the back end. You can see his growth week to week, which is what I love, seeing him develop, seeing him read patterns and just process things a whole lot faster. It’s looking like it’s turning up to be one hell of a year for him.”

Added Bullard: “We’re not surprised. Coop’s gonna be Coop, flying around. Coop is one of those guys who just trusts his talents. We say all the time. See ball, get ball. Coop, just go get the ball. I think him not second-guessing himself, him trusting the abilities that God has blessed him with, I think he’s gonna continue to make plays for us.”

That’s certainly new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s hope after Cooper, by his own admission, had a down Year 2 after an impressive rookie season.

Cooper’s impact plays dropped from a blockbuster rookie year under then- new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley in which he won the NFC defensive player of the week award twice (3.5 sacks, an interception, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, four pass breakups) to a Year 2 with very few splash plays (118 tackles, but no interceptions and just a half-sack).

Cooper, though, didn’t blame Hafley for how he was deployed; rather, he acknowledged that he didn’t elevate his own game the way he’d hoped to in his second season.

“I feel like this is the year,” Cooper, who has not yet spoken with reporters this week in advance of Sunday’s game between the Packers (0-1) and New York Jets (1-0) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., said in June as the offseason program drew to a close. “I don’t want to be slept on no more or any of that.

“I feel like my second year had a little slump early in the season, but it happens. It’s about how you respond. I felt like I did a good job responding, played decent ball at the end of the season. I’m just ready to elevate.

“I’m trying to be the best at my position. I feel like it’s time. It’s been time.”

Gannon seems to agree. He lined Cooper up in a variety of spots, moving him around alignments and sent him on four blitzes after Hafley sent him just 40 times in 16 starts last season.

“I thought he was lights out,” Gannon said. “He was all over the place. [We] deployed him a couple different ways, made a lot of plays for us, so he definitely impacted the game in a positive way.

“When you look at skillset for a linebacker — he can tackle, he can cover, he can blitz, he sees things extremely quickly — and I just think his explosiveness, when he sees the ball, he can go hit the ball.”

Added head coach Matt LaFleur: “That presents a lot of challenges in regards to where’s he going to line up. And then he’s just a playmaker out there. So just trying to get to him [as an offense] on the second level in the run game can be a challenge. He’s just a really talented player who I think is just scratching the surface.”

It could be argued that Cooper already scratched the surface before, and now it’s time for him to elevate his game. And if he continues to do so, it’ll elevate a defense that is in desperate need of a field-tilter while star edge rusher Micah Parsons works his way back from last year’s season-ending knee injury.

“Coop’s got some things in his game that I ain’t seen a lot of people have,” said veteran inside linebacker Zaire Franklin, Cooper’s new runningmate following the offseason free-agent departure of 2022 first-round pick Quay Walker. “I feel like he still hasn’t shown everything that he’s capable of, that I’ve seen even in my short time playing with him. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to watch him play, too.

“A guy like that, just making plays, I just feed off him, play off him. I tell him, ‘Look, Coop, I’m sending them right to you.’ And he knows it. It’s a tag team and we work together. I knew coming in, being able to play next to somebody that was young and talented like Coop, it’s going to make the whole defense better. It’s awesome.”

​COPYRIGHT 2026 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.