Packers’ Eric Stokes on Injured Reserve: ‘It Tests Me In Any and Every Way’

Rather than using Sunday's game at Denver as the relaunch to a promising career, Packers cornerback Eric Stokes suffered a hamstring injury that sent him to injured reserve.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The physical pain remains, but the emotional pain of Eric Stokes’ comeback ending almost before it began has been shoved aside.

“I had my down in Denver,” Stokes said of the hamstring injury that sent him to injured reserve. “In Denver, I was down the whole time and all that stuff. But the moment we landed back here, it was time to man up and just go ahead and face reality.

“It is what it is. In Denver, I was like saying, ‘Why me? Why all this?’ and all that stuff. But the moment I got back here, it’s time to move forward. It’s time to focus on going ahead and getting back to the grind.”

Stokes suffered foot and knee injuries at Detroit on Nov. 6, with the Lisfranc foot injury requiring season-ending surgery. Stokes was hopeful to be ready for Week 1 but issues with his right hamstring during rehab workouts in training camp kept him on the physically unable to perform list for the first six weeks of the season.

Stokes made his debut against the Broncos. On his fourth snap on special teams, when he worked as a gunner on the punt team, he tried to reaccelerate but injured his left hamstring.

“I’ve been practicing, been doing everything,” Stokes said. “For some reason, it just went. No sign. No warning. No nothing. Just boom.”

Packers CB Eric Stokes was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday :: Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images

Stokes said he didn’t miss any games at Georgia due to injury. Now, with a mandatory four-game stay on injured reserve and maybe a couple weeks of practice to get ready for action, Stokes is looking at perhaps getting back on the field in early December. That would mean about 13 months on the sideline.

“All of this is new to me,” he said. “I ain’t missed no games at UGA. I only missed in high school; I’d really like to say I only missed one. Injuries are very, very new to me. It’s strange. It’s unique. It’s different. I ain’t never missed time. I ain’t never missed a game. So missing, fixing to be looking like a year, it’s very tough on me. It tests me in any and every way and all that stuff, but it just makes me a better person and a stronger human being at the end of this.”

For Stokes, the injury is another abrupt change of direction in his career. A first-round pick in 2021, he rose to the occasion during Jaire Alexander’s absence and played a huge role in the Packers earning the No. 1 seed. However, after a first-year boom, Stokes was a second-year bust. He went from one interception and 14 passes defensed in 2021 to zero interceptions or passes defensed in nine games in 2022.

Stokes was hoping to get his career back on track, to remind everyone just how good he was as a rookie. Instead, his career has hit another pothole.

“Any and everybody can say I had a down year. Overall, it’s all outside noise,” he said. “I know what I did. I know everything that the organization thinks of me and all this other stuff. At the end of the day, it’s just as long as I feel good inside, everything else really shouldn’t matter.”

More Green Bay Packers News

You might say we've got the market cornered on the #Packers' transactions. (Sorry for the terrible pun.)

Ballentine promoted from the PS: https://t.co/dscnzvpreq
Gilbert signed to the PS: https://t.co/m4AAC20xan
Rochell added off the Panthers' PS: https://t.co/IcknDWUQEl

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 25, 2023

Jonathan Owens ready for starting opportunity

Robert Rochell knows the system, schedule

Christian Watson full participation on injury report

TV channel, betting, stats, notes for Packers-Vikings