GREEN BAY — Entering this year’s draft, the Packers had questions in the starting lineup on defense at safety and inside linebacker.
Anthony Johnson Jr. played more than 300 defensive snaps as a rookie seventh-round safety last season, but the Packers could’ve upgraded from him alongside prized free-agent signing Xavier McKinney. Isaiah McDuffie, Green Bay’s 24-year-old inside linebacker, flashed starter’s potential last season when filling in for Quay Walker or De’Vondre Campbell, but the Packers might’ve been able to upgrade from him, too.
In the span of 13 picks in the second round on Friday night, the Packers might’ve filled spots 10 and 11 in their starting lineup for new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley with the selections of Texas A&M inside linebacker Edgerrin Cooper at No. 45 and Georgia safety Javon Bullard at No. 58.
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Green Bay Packers NFL Draft picks 2024: Grades, fits and scouting reports
Cooper was the only player in the draft to lead his team in tackles, tackles for loss, sacks and forced fumbles, and he did so for a top-10 defense at Texas A&M. Bullard is a versatile defensive back who can play both safety spots and the nickel. He comes from a Georgia defense that has given the Packers four players in the first and second rounds of the last four drafts.
“They bring a lot of speed,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said Friday night. “These guys are really good football players. They run and hit. I think with Bullard, he’s very versatile. He can play the nickel. He can play safety. He’s done a lot of things. He’s a big-time leader for that football team at Georgia, which has been very, very good. And then obviously, Cooper, the speed that he brings to the table at the linebacker position is rare. So I think we got a lot faster, which I wanted to do this weekend.”
Head coach Matt LaFleur fired Joe Barry this offseason and replaced him with the former Boston College head coach Hafley, essentially putting more of the blame for the Packers’ defensive shortcomings on the play-caller than the players themselves. The roster wasn’t without blame, though, as players such as safety Darnell Savage Jr. and Campbell didn’t hold their weight. That’s probably why they’re on different teams now, with their starting spots potentially filled by the two guys Green Bay drafted first on Friday night.
Gutekunst said at the combine in February that he wants his safeties to be able to play three spots: free safety, strong safety and nickel. Bullard was asked on a conference call with Packers reporters how many positions he thinks he can play in the secondary.
“I don’t think — I know I can play all three positions in the secondary,” Bullard said. “Whatever you need me to play. I feel like I proved my versatility throughout this process, man, being able to cover slot guys and being able to cover tight ends and being able to get down in the box and get down and dirty with your running backs, things like that, so I feel like I can play all over.”
Keeping a “G” on the helmet. @cravejaaye 🐶@amfam | #PackersDraft pic.twitter.com/f6lp2tyLNs
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 27, 2024
It’s possible Bullard will play some in the nickel, a spot occupied by veteran Keisean Nixon, but Gutekunst said Bullard will probably start out at safety. Packers assistant director of scouting Patrick Moore said Bullard’s ability to play nickel is what elevated him on their board among the other safeties available, a group that included all but Minnesota’s Tyler Nubin, who went 11 picks earlier to the Giants.
“I don’t think we took him with a specific spot in mind other than a good secondary player who can help us,” Moore said while adding praise that didn’t always accompany Savage. “As you guys know, you don’t play for Coach (Kirby) Smart and not be a good tackler. That’s one of his strengths. If nothing else, he’s showing up ready to tackle. Tackling will not be an issue with him.”
The Athletic’s Dane Brugler notes that Bullard doesn’t have ideal size or length at a shade over 5 feet, 10 inches, 198 pounds and a wingspan that measured 73 5/8 inches at his pro day. But he adds that the guy who didn’t allow a touchdown in coverage for Georgia last season “is assignment-sound as a down safety, where he can quickly diagnose, drive and make plays at the football” and “is ultra-instinctive and makes his presence felt at all three levels of the field.”
Cooper probably has a lesser chance to start given how productive McDuffie was during fill-in duty last season, but you don’t draft an inside linebacker in the second round if he doesn’t have at least some starting qualities. Brugler’s scouting report of Cooper reads like what Walker’s would now — “An above-average athlete for his size, Cooper beelines to the football with outstanding closing burst and aggressive tackling … Cooper has some undisciplined tendencies and will run himself out of plays, but he is a fast-flowing linebacker who can run and cover.”
While Hafley’s base defense is technically a 4-3, Gutekunst has repeatedly noted this offseason that the Packers’ true base defense will be a 4-2-5 nickel formation with only two inside linebackers and not three. Even so, the Packers needed bodies at the position after releasing Campbell, and Cooper offers an intriguing skill set to potentially pair with Walker’s.
“Edgerrin’s probably not as thick right now as Quay was coming out, but same type of speed and intensity,” Moore said. “Obviously, you’re seeing them play the same type guys, same competition. Little bit different game but same type of physical traits and aggression, play style.”
Added Cooper: “That was something I always thought of, playing with another fast linebacker … being able to go sideline to sideline, having two weapons on the field like that, I feel like could be very dangerous.”
Got my partner in crime!
#PutCheeseOnEverything 🧀🧀🧀🧀 https://t.co/IccAFPsxqZ— 7 (@QuayWalker_) April 27, 2024
Walker and Cooper could pair to come downhill for tackles for loss and sacks, a feature they exhibit probably more so than Campbell did in Green Bay. Walker has already shown that downhill speed and Cooper is fresh off a season in which he amassed 17.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks from the inside linebacker position. Moore said that some of those were a byproduct of the Aggies using Cooper as a spy, a role in which he would trigger and make a play on the quarterback. That might come in handy against the quarterback a certain division rival took first overall on Thursday night.
“I feel like some teams don’t have second-level linebackers who are able to track down faster quarterbacks,” Cooper said. “I feel like that’s one good thing I bring to the table, being able to spy or rush the passer and get to the quarterback.”
With one of the best young offenses in the NFL, one seemingly capable of carrying the Packers to the promised land for years to come based on what it showed last season, Hafley’s side of the ball carries the burden of making sure quarterback Jordan Love’s exploits don’t go to waste. That sound familiar here in Green Bay?
On Friday night, Gutekunst took what appears to be a significant step in equipping the Packers’ new defensive coordinator with the necessary tools to do what defenses here of seasons past couldn’t. Bullard and Cooper can both start right away, if their college performance indicates what’s to come and help fill the few holes on both sides of the ball in the starting lineup for a team not far from Super Bowl contention.
(Photo of Javon Bullard sacking C.J. Stroud in 2022: Austin McAfee / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
