GREEN BAY, Wis. — What Ty’Ron Hopper has accomplished on the field these last couple of weeks—most notably in Thursday night’s win over the Carolina Panthers—comes as no surprise to those inside of 1265 Lombardi Ave.
There’s a reason why head coach Matt LaFleur called the Green Bay Packers’ linebacker one of the most improved players on the team this past summer. Hopper, a 2024 third-round pick, has been thrust into the team’s starting defensive lineup amid a flurry of injuries at the position, and he hasn’t disappointed by any stretch of the imagination.
Edgerrin Cooper suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the Packers’ Oct. 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and then Zaire Franklin took a cleat to the shin during practice last week, forcing him to miss consecutive games with a hairline fracture. That bumped Hopper and Isaiah McDuffie up the depth chart, now serving as the Packers’ starting linebacker duo.
Entering this week, the Panthers were near the top of the league in explosive plays, which comes as no surprise with a tall, fast wideout in Tetairoa McMillan at their disposal. Chuba Hubbard has been dynamic out of the backfield, both as a runner and in the Panthers’ passing game.
Thanks to a 47.7 percent pressure rate from Jonathan Gannon, the Packers’ defensive coordinator, Bryce Young never truly had an opportunity to settle in and take shots downfield. He was limited to an average target depth of 5.6 yards, and Hopper played a critical role in keeping the second level of the Packers’ defense stabilized. He finished the game with eight tackles, one sack, three passes defensed, and an interception, becoming the first player to accomplish this feat in a game for the Packers since Charles Woodson’s Defensive Player of the Year campaign in 2009.
