As we wait out the quietest part of the NFL offseason, I find myself consistently looking over the depth chart. Where can the Green Bay Packers improve? Who can break out? Where are the camp battles? etc. Middle linebacker is a position that doesn’t get talked about much, but it caught my attention.
I was surprised by the amount of depth they retained. The big move that Green Bay made was trading for Zaire Franklin, who will slot in for Quay Walker as the starter next to Edgerrin Cooper. He will offer a much-needed veteran presence that Walker didn’t always provide. Behind them, Green Bay still has Isaiah McDuffie, who has played a crucial role the last two seasons.
Beyond that is where the depth stands out. The Packers still have Ty’Ron Hopper, a former third-round pick, who has shown flashes in the preseason but has not contributed much in the regular season. They also have a pair of veteran special-team aces in Kristian Welch and Nick Niemann, who have filled in on defense when needed.
None of those last three guys should be playing significant snaps. However, I’d feel comfortable with any of them in a pinch, especially if Hopper can take a step this upcoming season, which allows for a lot of flexibility.
At the top of the depth chart, the Packers have two vets in Franklin and McDuffie who they can trust to handle a heavy workload, which allows them to get creative with the younger athletes in the room.
Early on in the season, while Micah Parsons is out, Jonathan Gannon and the defensive staff must get creative to sustain pressure with the current edge room. They’ll have to take a similar approach as they did under Jeff Hafley without Micah Parsons.
The Packers could add some help to the room and have been linked to a few veterans. Still, to this point they have not added and are in line to trot out Lukas Van Ness and friends at edge for Week 1 in Minnesota.
Green Bay’s depth at linebacker gives it the ability to deploy Cooper in several ways, including as a pass rusher. We’ve already seen Green Bay test this out early in mini camp, and while Parsons is out, I also expect to see it in the regular season.
Throughout Cooper’s first two seasons, he has stacked up four sacks and 10 QB hits. His most productive pass-rush season came in his rookie year, when Green Bay didn’t have Parsons and the pass rush was much more creative, with guys like Cooper and Quay Walker playing more frequently.
Cooper had 3.5 sacks and seven QB hits. That’s not a ton of production. However, he had eight sacks in his final season at Texas A&M. The Packers can unlock that skill set if they use him correctly.
Cooper isn’t going to play on the edge all the time. That will be a package that the Packers use infrequently on obvious passing downs. Still, it’s a package that they can and should use more often because Green Bay has several linebackers they trust in the room.
Hopper is another intriguing player they can deploy around the defense. Hopper has hardly played in his first two seasons in Green Bay. However, in Year 3, you’d hope he can start to find a role on defense, or they might cut him.
Coming out of college, Hopper’s most intriguing trait was his explosive, straight-line athleticism. He only had a 7.38 Relative Athletic Score. However, he had a 36-inch vertical, 10’4” broad jump, and ran a 4.68 40-yard dash.
Hopper also had 8.5 sacks in his final three years in college. Sending him downhill towards the quarterback is the best way to carve out a role for him in the defense and another way to create pressure while Parsons is out.
The first half of the season for Green Bay’s defense is going to be difficult without Parsons, but the roster beyond him has solid depth to cover for him in the interim.
Green Bay must use its depth players to maximize the pass rush. Having a veteran defensive coordinator in Gannon, who has deployed various defenses and has a wealth of depth at inside and outside linebackers, will be crucial in surviving the Micah-less stretch of the season.
