Edgerrin Cooper had already made his presence felt all over the field on Sunday. Then, on a defensive snap in the third quarter, the Green Bay Packers linebacker went down without any contact, instinctively turned to look behind him, and immediately knew what went wrong.
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Now, Green Bay fears they may have lost one of their core defensive anchors for the remainder of the season. So, even though the Packers won 17-14 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, quarterback Jordan Love could only hope for better news regarding his teammate Cooper.
“Man, I’m sick. I don’t know exactly what it is. Pray for the best, but you never want to see anybody injured,” Love said after the game. “Coop is such an impact player on our defense. We’ll see what it is, but it’s definitely not good.”
The early diagnosis was grim. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said the injury looked like an Achilles tear and expected Cooper to miss the remainder of the season, although an MRI will confirm the severity.
“Not good,” LaFleur told reporters. “I would suspect [he tore his Achilles], yes.”
Cooper suffered the injury with 8:43 left in the third quarter. Green Bay had called a blitz on third-and-8, and Cooper took a few explosive steps after the snap before suddenly collapsing to the turf without making contact with another player.
He immediately looked behind him as if someone had kicked the back of his leg. Cooper then grabbed his lower left leg, removed his helmet, and pounded the turf in frustration. He could not put weight on the leg and eventually had to be taken from the field on a cart.
The timing was especially painful because Cooper was having a dominant afternoon.
He finished with a team-high nine tackles, along with a sack, quarterback hit, interception, and pass defended. His interception came late in the second quarter when he picked off rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels with 41 seconds left before halftime. The takeaway set up Trey Smack for a 58-yard field goal that gave Green Bay a 10-7 lead at the break.
Cooper entered Sunday with 21 tackles, six tackles for loss and two sacks through the Packers’ first three games. His latest performance pushed his season totals to 30 tackles, three sacks and an interception.
The Packers quickly ruled him out after the injury. Isaiah McDuffie stepped in at linebacker but later left with an eye injury, forcing Ty’Ron Hopper into the game.
That could leave Green Bay dealing with another significant adjustment on defense. Cooper has become one of the unit’s most disruptive players since the Packers selected him in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
LaFleur was visibly affected by the possibility of losing him.
“It doesn’t look good on him,” LaFleur said. “That’s a huge blow for our football team. I hurt for him. I hurt for our team.”
The injury would add Cooper to a growing list of Packers players lost for the season. Right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele and wide receiver Jayden Reed have also suffered season-ending injuries.
Green Bay still escaped Tampa Bay with a win, but the win came at a high cost. Now the Packers will wait for Cooper’s MRI while preparing for the possibility that their defensive star will not return this season.