The Green Bay Packers have moved on from the sudden loss of Edgerrin Cooper by bringing a familiar special-teams body back onto the active roster.
Cooper, the second-round pick from 2024 who had become one of the team’s most reliable defenders, suffered an Achilles tear and was placed on injured reserve, ending his season.
Before the year began, executives and coaches had ranked him ninth among off-the-ball linebackers in an ESPN survey, a standing that matched the way he had played through the early weeks.
In his place, the Packers signed Kristian Welch, a 28-year-old who entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2020.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported the move on Tuesday, noting that Welch returns to the 53-man roster while running back Damon Bankston goes back to the practice squad.
Welch had spent this season on the practice squad and was elevated for the Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, so the transaction is less a new acquisition than a recall of a player the staff already knows.
That familiarity is mostly about special teams. Across a career now in its seventh year, Welch has logged nearly 1,500 snaps on that unit. In a little more than two seasons with Green Bay, he has played only two snaps on defense.
He is not expected to inherit the green-dot communicator role or to call the defense from the middle of the field beginning in Week 5.
The more practical use is to absorb the special-teams work that Isaiah McDuffie has been handling, freeing McDuffie to compete with Zaire Franklin for the play-calling responsibility Cooper leaves behind.
Defensive depth will come from elsewhere in the short term. Former Kansas City Chief Nick Niemann and third-year linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper, a third-round pick, are the likelier options behind the starters.
Hopper already saw limited action on Sunday after Cooper went down.
Welch still gives the room another experienced body who can take defensive snaps if injuries pile up, but his value on Sundays is expected to show up on kickoffs and punts rather than in the base defense.
Cooper’s absence is a real hit for a unit that had leaned on him. The Packers are not pretending Welch is a like-for-like replacement.
They are filling a roster spot, protecting special teams, and asking McDuffie, Franklin, Niemann, and Hopper to carry more of the defensive load until the season plays out.
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