GREEN BAY – With the Jeff Hafley era officially underway, the Packers grabbed two fast and aggressive SEC defenders in the second round of the NFL Draft on Friday night.
Green Bay first drafted Texas A&M’s All-American linebacker Edgerrin Cooper at No. 45 following a trade with the New Orleans Saints. In moving back four spots, the Packers gathered additional picks in the fifth (No. 168) and sixth round (No. 190) on Saturday.
Thirteen picks later, Green Bay dipped back into the University of Georgia pipeline and took defensive back Javon Bullard at No. 58.
As the Packers switch to a 4-3 base front, both inside linebacker and safety were considered positions of need entering this year’s draft. In Cooper and Bullard, Green Bay adds an inside linebacker who ran a 4.51 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine and a safety clocked in the 4.4s.
“They bring a lot of speed,” General Manager Brian Gutekunst said. “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. I think we got a lot faster, which I wanted to do this weekend.”
Cooper was the first off-ball linebacker selected in this year’s draft after a monumental redshirt junior season in which he became the first Texas A&M pure linebacker to earn consensus first-team All-America honors since Dat Nguyen in 1998.
Lauded for his athleticism and relentless sideline-to-sideline pursuit, Cooper was one of the most disruptive players in the country in 2023. He led the Aggies with 84 tackles and eight sacks and also paced the SEC with 17 tackles for loss.
A sharp spike in production caught the attention of the Packers, who talked to Cooper at his Texas A&M pro day and also brought him to Green Bay on an enlightening pre-draft visit for both sides.
“When I went to go visit them, I felt a lot of energy from them, from the coaches, the love and support from them,” Cooper said. “I had an idea (of their interest) just talking to them. Sometimes you just know a person’s really interested in you. That’s the feeling that I got.”
Bullard was the second safety prospect to be selected following a distinguished run at Georgia that saw the 5-foot-10, 198-pound defensive back capture…
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