GREEN BAY, Wis. — Everyone’s worst fears were realized.
After flying back to Green Bay to undergo an MRI and further testing, it was confirmed on Monday that Edgerrin Cooper, the Packers’ star linebacker, suffered a torn Achilles.
The writing was on the wall when Cooper hit the deck without any contact just a few minutes into the third quarter of Sunday’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He promptly reached to grab the back of his ankle and looked behind him as if someone had kicked him in the leg—a telltale sign of an Achilles injury.
The 24-year-old Cooper will now miss the rest of the season as he prepares for a lengthy, strenuous recovery process. By the time he’s back on the field for a regular-season game in 11 months—assuming there are no setbacks in his rehab—he’ll be entering the final year of his rookie contract. The Packers have enough of a sample size by now to determine just how imperative he is to their defense, so it won’t be a matter of whether or not he deserves an extension—it’s a matter of banking on him returning as the same player he was before.
Across 34 career games, Cooper has accumulated 235 tackles, seven sacks, and a pair of interceptions. He was on the verge of league-wide notoriety after a tremendous start to the 2026 season—his first under new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. Cooper was a critical component of Gannon’s plan for stabilizing the Packers’ pass rush sans Micah Parsons, and he was already up to a team-high three sacks.
“I’m sick,” said Jordan Love after the game. “I don’t know exactly what it is—that’s probably for the best. You never wanna see anybody injured. [Cooper] is such an impact player on our defense, so we’ll see what it is, but it’s definitely not good.”
The loss of someone of Cooper’s standing can suck all of the air out of the building. Despite outlasting the Buccaneers to get back to a .500 record of 2-2, the Packers don’t have the opportunity to dwell. They’re hosting the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday, and they’re coming off back-to-back impressive victories with two different quarterbacks at the helm. If the Packers are going to pick up the pieces, they have to do it fast; this kind of adversity isn’t something they’re foreign to, unfortunately.
Cooper now joins the Packers’ evolving infirmary report as the third player to tear his Achilles since December. Jordon Riley and John Fitzpatrick went down with the injuries in consecutive weeks late last season. He also marks the 11th different instance of a player going down with a season-ending injury since Nov. 2. The laundry list includes Tucker Kraft, Elgton Jenkins, Devonte Wyatt, Zach Bako-Bewele (twice), Jayden Reed, and Parsons, among others.
When asked how the Packers replace Cooper, an emotional and visibly annoyed Matt LaFleur explicitly said, “I don’t know.”
On Sunday, the Packers called upon Isaiah McDuffie and Ty’Ron Hopper, a former third-round pick, to fill the void in their defense. McDuffie briefly exited with an eye injury, but he returned shortly thereafter. If LaFleur doesn’t know, he and general manager Brian Gutekunst better put their thinking caps on and figure it out, or else the Packers won’t be a .500 team for long.
Zachary Jacobson is the author of The Packer Dispatch. He is entering his 12th season covering the Green Bay Packers after spending seven as the Editor-in-Chief of Packer Report. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter @zachjacobson or contact him via email at itszachariahj@gmail.com.
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