Edgerrin Cooper has made ESPN’s annual top-10 off-ball linebacker rankings for the first time, landing at No. 9 in the survey of more than 70 league executives, coaches and scouts published Tuesday. The Packers‘ third-year linebacker was one of five debuts on a list that turned over dramatically behind Fred Warner and Roquan Smith.
The ranking is quiet validation of a bet Green Bay made in March. When the front office let Quay Walker leave in free agency, it handed the middle of the defense to Cooper, a 2024 second-round pick with two seasons of flashes and no full-time lead role. Evaluators think the math works: Cooper made the top 10 while Walker, now a Raider, settled for honorable mention.
The numbers explain the enthusiasm. Cooper’s 17 career tackles for loss are the most by a Packers player through his first two seasons since Clay Matthews III piled up 35 in 2009-10. He posted a 33% run stop win rate in 2025, forced two fumbles and recovered another, and at 6-foot-2, 229 pounds with a 4.51-second 40, he covers ground few linebackers can. “He has the size, speed and run-and-hit ability that few have,” a veteran NFL defensive coach told ESPN. “He can really go.” A high-ranking AFC official pointed somewhere else entirely: “It’s his mind. He sees it and can anticipate.”
The voting spread — as high as No. 4 on some ballots, unranked on others — reads like the league’s standard treatment of a young player with one breakout season: convinced by the tape, waiting on the track record. That caution is fair. Cooper has not yet played a full season as the unquestioned centerpiece of the unit, and 2026 will be the first year the communication and alignment responsibilities fall to him from Week 1.
Green Bay has spent the offseason quietly reinforcing the room around him rather than replacing anyone above him — Isaiah McDuffie signed a one-year extension Monday — which tells you the depth chart is settled and the job is Cooper’s. The full squad reports to camp July 29.
