Most Important Packers – 21-24: Living on the Edge

Part 11 of our 90-to-1 countdown of the Green Bay Packers’ roster continues with a pair of first-round picks and one of the team’s most important rookies, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.

Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper will have a key role on defense. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will take a 90-man roster to the field for the first practice of training camp on July 22.

Here is Part 11 of our ranking of the most important players on the Packers’ roster. This isn’t just a listing of the team’s best players. These rankings consider talent, importance of the position, depth at the position, salary and draft history. More than anything, we hope you learn something about each player.

No. 24: OL Jordan Morgan

Morgan would rank much higher than 24th if he were penciled in as the starting right guard or even a potential starter at left tackle. However, some rookie-year uncertainty is a factor.

Regardless, the Packers expect the first-round pick to get on the field, whether it’s as a Day 1 starter or the unit’s season-long utilityman.

“He reminds me a lot of myself, not to toot my own horn,” starting right tackle Zach Tom said. “He has good feet, he moves really well. I think he’s going to be a really good player in the league. Obviously, he has that versatility. He’s going to be really good.”

Morgan, a three-year starting left tackle at Arizona, spent most of the offseason shuttling between right guard and right tackle. He played some left tackle, too, and even a little left guard.

“It’s a grind,” Morgan said at the end of minicamp. “It’s challenging, for sure, because in college I played left tackle. Being able to come out here and use my versatility and balancing right side, left side, guards and everything like that, it’s been a challenge, but it’s also been good for me.”

Morgan is an excellent athlete by the stopwatch and the eyeball test. He is explosive off the ball. However, does he have the requisite length to survive on the edge? It’s worth noting his 32 7/8-inch arms are rare but not unique.

According to our look at projected training camp depth charts, 44 offensive tackles have arms of at least 34 inches, 16 are in the 33s and four are in the 32s. Two of them are left tackles: the Colts’ Bernhard Raimann (32 3/4 inches) and the Rams’ Alaric Jackson (32 1/2). Raimann was PFF’s fourth-ranked left tackle last year while Jackson was just a bit below average.

“I laugh because that’s one of the first things people say is arm length is 32 1/4 or 3/4,” offensive line coach Luke Butkus said. “There are a lot of guys that have played this game that were too short, that had too short of arms, that weren’t big enough. We’re used to hearing that. 

“To me, it doesn’t matter. If your arms are too short, you better be really violent with your hands. That’s our job is to coach and teach that.”

No. 23: DT Devonte Wyatt

When new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich talk about an attacking defense, the prime beneficiary could be Wyatt, a first-round pick in 2022 based on athleticism more than his ability to be stout at the point of attack.

“The thing about Devonte Wyatt, he’s quick, fast, and athletic. So, you’re going to have to develop things around him to use those attributes,” Rebrovich said at the start of OTAs. “What a great opportunity for him and us. That’s the mindset that we’re working to develop is creating those TFLs, that mindset of getting into the backfield. And he executes every one of those. He checks all the boxes. So, we’re definitely looking for a great outcome for that young man for this upcoming season.”

Wyatt had a solid second-year jump, going from 1.5 sacks, 15 tackles and zero tackles for losses in 2022 to 5.5 sacks, 36 tackles and six tackles for losses in 2023. Of 98 interior defenders with at least 200 pass-rushing opportunities, Wyatt ranked second behind only Chiefs star Chris Jones in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap. Had he not missed so many tackles, he might have threatened a 10-sack season.

Wyatt played in 3-4 and 4-3 schemes at Georgia, so there is a sense of familiarity in new coordinator Jeff Hafley’s defense.

“I liked that better,” he said of a four-man front. “I can’t for sure tell you why, I just feel like it gave me the best chance to attack, attack, attack instead of reading and reacting.”

No. 22: TE Tucker Kraft

First, Kraft tore his pectoral while on the bench press.

“It just popped right off the bone,” he said.

Ten days after surgery, he got married.

“It impacted a lot,” he said. “Not being able to use half your torso is not very fun when you’re trying to dance, especially when you like to swing dance and stuff like that. It was a bummer.”

Also a bummer was not being able to participate in offseason practices. Kraft has a lofty goal for the season in becoming one of the best run-blocking tight ends in the NFL. When the Packers absolutely need to gain yards, he wants the team to run the ball his direction.

“I want to be better with my first two steps of contact on back-side and inside zone. That’s where I want to improve,” he said. “This year, I want to take over the run at the tight end and the inside zone kind of throughout the entirety. That’s my goal. When my number’s called and it’s run at me, that my running back is comfortable pressing his landmark and getting the ball back upfield.

“I think that’s a huge emphasis – having a tight end who’s really steady, really consistent in the run game, especially in our offense. We’re outside zone, I want to be 100 percent secure and comfortable and confident every single time.”

Kraft had an excellent rookie season. After barely playing at the start, Kraft caught 31 passes for 355 yards and two touchdowns to post one of the best rookie seasons by a tight end in franchise history. During the final eight games, he caught 28-of-35 passes for 344 yards. While Luke Musgrave wins with graceful athleticism, Kraft wins with physicality.

That’s where he excelled at South Dakota State. But would that skill transfer against the bigger, faster and more talented athletes of the NFL? Yes, was the resounding answer. Among the 45 tight ends who were targeted at least 30 times in the passing game, Kraft’s 7.5 yards after the catch per catch was best in the NFL.

“Everyone was wrong,” he said about his FCS-to-NFL transition. “Anyone who tries to shove that small-school narrative, they can put it where the sun don’t shine.”

No. 21: LB Edgerrin Cooper

It’s not easy being a rookie linebacker. The basis of many NFL offenses are dressing up relatively simple plays with a bunch of movement and misdirection – eye candy – to get a defender’s eyes moving to one side to get the ball to the other.

As ESPN’s Mina Kimes put it recently: “Very few off-ball linebackers seem to do well when they come into the NFL these days. I think a lot of that has to do with offensive coordinators … who really isolate them and make their lives hell. It’s very hard to play linebacker right now in the NFL, because of all the motions and the RPO-centric offenses and everything that offensive coordinators do on that front.”

The Packers need Cooper to play. Not at some point during his rookie season but right away. The second-round pick is too talented and fills too big of a hole to not be on the field. With 8.5 sacks and an SEC-leading 17 tackles for losses, he was an All-American at Texas A&M because of his skill as a tackler, blitzer and cover guy.

“Think this is a critical time for, in particular his case, he’s got to keep building on the foundation that he’s laid,” coach Matt LaFleur said at the end of minicamp, “and we expect him to come back even better and have a better knowledge base on what is required of him.

“There was one play in particular today that I thought for sure we were going to get him on and he did a heck of a job with it. And I was kind of teasing the coaches, did you preview him for that play? And they did not. So, that’s a credit to him and just how engaged he’s been and how locked in he’s been throughout the course of the offseason.”

That sounded like a challenge by LaFleur. Cooper’s been challenged before.

“I thought he really showed this past season what he’s really made of, what his work ethic is, and how important football is in being a top-notch guy,” D.J. Durkin, the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach the past two seasons at Texas A&M, told Packer Central. “I challenged him and he made his mind up to say, ‘I’m going to go prepare and do things at a higher level,’ and I thought his play certainly showed it.”

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