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Edgerrin Cooper, LB, Texas A&M (Junior)

Picture of Rayane M

Rayane M

Back for the 2024 NFL Draft edition, The Trick Play team is once again offering to immerse you in the heart of the event through the scouting reports of Rayane and Valentin. Who will become the next gem of the pro world and who, on the contrary, risks a spectacular flop?
The 2024 NFL Draft starts right now on TTP!

 

Strengths :

  • Good athlete
  • Active against the block
  • Disciplined
  • Good play recognition
  • Good coverage abilities
  • Dangerous player on blitzes

 

Weaknesses :

  •  Naivety on coverage
  • Plays too high
  • Tackling technique
  • Lack experience as an ILB
  • Imbalance

TTProfil

 
Edgerrin Cooper is a profile that I personally like a lot at the LB position because he ticks many boxes that I look for in a modern LB pair to be complementary. As I have said and repeated in numerous scouting reports, it's all about value, and it's important not to overrate players to avoid creating too much hype around them, which could hinder their development. This is once again the case with Edgerrin because while he does have very nice potential, he will need time to work on certain aspects of his game calmly.
 
To begin with, Edgerrin is a young player who is both explosive and fast. He has nice athletic abilities and a good build. Additionally, his speed and explosiveness are evident on tape, so he's not just a player who might shine at the Combine.

What his impressive athletic abilities allow him to do, among other things, is to cover the pass well, particularly showing good zone coverage skills. I really liked what Edgerrin demonstrated in zone coverage situations; it's more than just decent. He moves smoothly within his zone, shifts quickly, and displays good game reading.

Another area where Cooper's athletic abilities stand out is his ability to blitz. This is where he becomes truly dangerous thanks to his explosiveness, speed, good reads, and discipline. However, it's primarily his athleticism that makes Edgerrin threatening; don't expect him to start executing edge rusher techniques because he won't be capable of it. The pressure mainly comes from his athletic abilities, which also make him very effective in QB spy situations, a scenario becoming more common in the NFL due to the emergence of many dual-threat QBs. So, that's a positive point for Edgerrin's value.
 
Let's revisit his ability to read the game, which we briefly touched upon earlier. Edgerrin has a pretty solid overall ability to read the game; he rarely falls for fakes, and when he senses that a play might be a trick or if he has any doubt about what he sees, he chooses to be disciplined and play it safe. Personally, I loved seeing this in him because it's somewhat rare among today's players to exhibit this kind of discipline. When in doubt, stick to your assignment as you're supposed to on paper, and things should work out fine – that's exactly what Cooper does. While this approach may have cost his team a few yards at times, it has also often prevented big plays and limited the damage.
 
Staying on the disciplined side, that's something you can really count on with Edgerrin. He does his job and trusts his teammates to do theirs. He's quick to fill his assigned gap when he reads the run, shutting down the rushing lane for the ball carrier. As a result, he often forces the ball carrier to change direction, which might partly explain the relatively low tackle numbers for Edgerrin despite his role as the second ILB (Buck LB) in Nickel formations. 

Finally, I liked seeing how much he fought to shed blocks when he got caught by an offensive lineman. Despite his relatively slim build, Cooper battles to try to disengage, and that's worth noting.
So, what about the areas for improvement for Edgerrin Cooper? Well, to start, he'll need to pay attention to his reads and his movements in man-to-man coverage situations. While we've seen in the strengths section that reading is indeed an interesting point for Cooper, it's not always the case in this specific situation where he can sometimes appear extremely naive.
Indeed, in man-to-man coverage situations, he tends to completely take his eyes off the opposing QB, and where it really becomes a problem is that he can do so for a long time, even too long. Moreover, it's not uncommon for Edgerrin to completely turn his shoulders and end up with his back to the play, which could backfire on him in the pros. A dual-threat QB will surely exploit that to his advantage.
 
Continuing on this note of being somewhat naive, Edgerrin will need to be careful not to be too aggressive in reacting to what the opposing QB shows him when he finds himself in coverage situations, whether man or zone. Because of his good reading ability, Cooper tends to anticipate the play a little too much, often starting to move towards the QB when he begins to roll out of the pocket or descending towards his target as soon as he sees the QB start to arm his throw. In practice, these kinds of actions can be beneficial when done correctly, but as I mentioned, Cooper does them too early, which can lead to mistakes. So, it's important not to overcommit and get caught out of position or be deceived by a route.

Edgerrin will also need to learn to play lower if he wants to be impactful in the pros; he still plays too high, especially when it comes to tackling. By often arriving too high and off-balance, he is particularly vulnerable to the explosive changes of direction by ball carriers (cuts or jukes, as they are often called), which logically leads to missed tackles, which we'll discuss in a moment.
For now, let's stick with the imbalance aspect and the fact that Cooper still plays too many plays completely off-balance. In studying his tapes, I've seen him fall over several times while pursuing the ball carrier. While it may be amusing the first couple of times, after seeing it happen 2, 3, 4 times in a single game, I must admit it becomes quite a lot, and I even found it frustrating at times. Stay on your feet, Edgerrin! It's a real task to keep the player under control.
 
As promised, let's get back to his tackling technique, which also needs some work. Too often, in my opinion, Edgerrin tries to tackle with his arms rather than with his chest, which directly exposes him. Edgerrin actually misses quite a few tackle opportunities because of this, which further explains his slight lack of stats in terms of tackles.

I also noted a lot of plays where he lined up outside the box despite having decent coverage abilities but far from extraordinary. Taken together, all these plays where he found himself aligned outside the box took away a lot of reps and therefore experience inside the box. This lack of repetitions as a more traditional ILB can make the difference between being seen by his next staff as a true LB or a "gadget" player, and sometimes this small detail can make all the difference between a successful start to a career in the pros or not.

In conclusion, Edgerrin Cooper has plenty of potential. He's young, possesses good coverage abilities, a solid understanding of the game, and a willing attitude. Personally, I was impressed by his short-to-medium term development potential as a Buck LB (or 2nd ILB) in a Nickel scheme, whether it's a 3-3-5 or 4-2-5 formation.

In my opinion, he may struggle to develop into a true Middle LB, but he has the tools to become a very good 2nd ILB. However, he'll need to refine some key aspects of his game for proper development. This could involve either throwing him directly into the fire as a rookie but with a solid veteran LB beside him, or letting him sit for a season or two behind established starters to polish his skills.

In any case, personally, I like him and I would consider taking a chance on him from the middle of the 2nd round, with a maximum value in the 3rd round. He has real qualities, and just like with Tommy Eichenberg, I wouldn't mind seeing a team that really likes the player reach a bit to secure him. However, attention should be paid to the combine because if Edgerrin makes a big impression there, he might turn heads, but I don't see him as a first-round talent.

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