GREEN BAY – This week just hasn't been quite the same for Zaire Franklin and the Packers' defense.
Not without Edgerrin Cooper around.
A season with All-Pro potential came to a screeching halt on Sunday in Tampa after Cooper tore his Achilles in the third quarter of Green Bay's eventual 17-14 win over the Buccaneers.
The third-year linebacker already tallied 18 tackles (six for a loss) with three sacks and an interception through the first month of the 2026 season, critical production for a defense finding its rhythm with edge rusher Micah Parsons still on the mend.
But it's Edgerrin Cooper – the person, the friend, the teammate – that was top of mind for Franklin after practice Wednesday.
"Love Coop, bro. It hurt not even being out there at practice with him," Franklin said. "Today, I shot him a text like, 'It ain't even the same without my dawg, for real.'"
Cooper is in good spirits, though, as he focuses on a 2027 return. Meanwhile, the Packers must learn to live without their 6-foot-2, 229-pound defensive wunderkind beginning with Sunday's NFC North showdown with the defending champion Chicago Bears.
Emotions are high but so too is the optimism within coordinator Jonathan Gannon's defense. Franklin, voted as team captain in his first year in Green Bay, looks around his room and sees a hungry array of linebackers wanting to make an impact.
Sixth-year veteran Isaiah McDuffie is the Packers' longest-tenured defensive player and a two-time special teams captain. He's seen action in 71 games with 38 starts over the past four years, tallying 329 tackles with two sacks and a forced fumble.
When Cooper went down Sunday, McDuffie jumped into action.
"We lost our brother, we lost a huge part of our defense," McDuffie said. "Guys in the room have got to pick it up. It's going to be a challenge. We're looking forward to being out there and helping the team."
The Packers also have a former third-round pick, Ty'Ron Hopper, who was a product of the same 2024 NFL Draft that brought Cooper to Green Bay.
The 6-foot-2, 228-pound linebacker has been a mainstay on Green Bay's special teams over the past two years but played just 150 defensive snaps in 37 regular-season games due mostly to depth.
A physical, pad-popping linebacker, Hopper reminds Franklin a lot of himself – a 2018 seventh-round pick who starred for three years on Indianapolis' special teams units before finally getting his shot on defense in 2021.
"I've been in his position before where you're a talented young player but you're kind of behind in that depth chart to some really good players," said Franklin, who made an AP All-Pro team in 2024. "I told him from the beginning, I see it and I believe it in. Just keep your head down and keep working. He's done a great job of that … and now his opportunity is here."
While McDuffie and Hopper are the top options to absorb Cooper's workload at linebacker, there's a universal understanding within Green Bay's locker room that replacing Cooper is the entire defense's responsibility.
No different than Cooper and Co. did through the first four games while Parsons inches closer to a return from the torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered last December in Denver.
Gannon points at himself, too. While discussing Cooper's departure with the Green Bay media corps on Tuesday, Gannon boiled his job down to three basics questions moving forward.
"Who do we have? Who are we playing? How do we deploy them to affect the game in a positive way?" Gannon said. "Football is the greatest game in the world because it's 11 guys out there, and everyone's gotta do their job at a high level to have success."
On Sunday, the opponent was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Without Cooper for the final 23 minutes, 43 seconds of the game, Gannon called upon another 2024 draft pick, Evan Williams, to provide a lift as the game hung in the balance.
He blitzed Williams on three consecutive plays in the final two minute, resulting in the third-year safety recording his first career sack on first down and pressuring Tampa Bay quarterback Jalon Daniels into a fourth-and-11 incompletion.
If the situation calls for it again this Sunday against the Bears, Williams is ready for it.
"It's a next-man-up type of league," Williams said. "You can't completely alter your game plan because you have one person out. For the most part, it's just about trusting that next guy is going to do exactly – I don't know if you're going to say exactly – what Coop is capable of doing. Just understanding that he's going to do his job and being able to play off those guys."
Franklin knows Gannon better than anybody in the Packers' locker room after the two worked together in Indianapolis for two years. One of Gannon's greatest strengths is to adjusting to his scheme to his available personnel.
On the field, the 30-year-old veteran will miss his friend but welcomes the challenge of helping fill Cooper's void. That begins this Sunday against the Bears, Green Bay's oldest rival who also boasts one of the NFL's most explosive offenses.
"Just seeing Coop made everybody smile. He just had this energy that everybody fed off," Franklin said. "That's just something we all gotta pick up. That's a burden we all gotta carry. I don't think that's just on me, just on Hopp and Duff. I think it's on all 11 of us to continue to pull and lead this defense in the same direction."
