Like Tucker Kraft and Micah Parsons in 2025, Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper was enjoying an All-Pro level season before he went down with a season-ending injury on Sunday in Tampa Bay.
Cooper suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the third quarter against the Buccaneers and is done for the season. The start to his third NFL season showed a consistently disruptive playmaker befitting the term "star" player.
Through four games in 2026, Cooper ranked third among all NFL players in tackles for loss (7.0) and first among off-ball linebackers in both tackles for loss and sacks (3.0).
According to Aaron Schatz of FTN, Cooper produced 12 "defeats," which includes takeaways, tackle for loss or plays preventing a conversion on third or fourth
down. Only Houston's Will Anderson (13) had more during the season's first four games.
At Pro Football Focus, Cooper's 14 stops, or tackles creating a failure for the offense, ranked eighth among all players and fifth among linebackers.
Over 31 tackle attempts in 2026, Cooper missed just a single one. His missed tackle rate was top 10 among off-ball linebackers with at least 100 snaps.
Cooper's diving interception on Sunday in Tampa Bay was one of the game's key moments. Instead of giving up a scoring drive before the half, the Packers got the ball back and scored three points on a long Trey Smack field goal. The Packers ended up winning by three. Cooper also had a sack on third down and a tackle short of the sticks on third down.
"He's a really good player. Can do a lot of things for us. My heart hurts for him," defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said Tuesday. "It's a tough break. Hard to replace a guy like that, obviously."
The Packers are becoming familiar with this type of loss. Kraft looked like the best tight end in football through the first eight games of 2025 but then tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season. Micah Parsons was leading the NFL in pressures into December of last year before he tore his ACL in Denver. Kraft probably would have been an All-Pro with a full season. Parsons was so dominant over 14 games that he still ended up a first-team All-Pro.
Cooper won't get any accolades for four games of work in 2026. But he was still terrific to start this season, and it's a shame he won't get to see it through over the final 13 games.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers LB Edgerrin Cooper was having All-Pro level season before injury
