American Football

2024 Packers Preview: Linebackers

May 21, 2024

NFC Wild Card Playoffs - Green Bay Packers v Dallas Cowboys — Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images

Only one of Green Bay’s three starting linebackers in its 4-3 scheme is set in stone going into camp.

One of the positions that will see the most change in 2024 is off-ball linebacker. Not only are the Green Bay Packers transitioning from Joe Barry’s 3-4 defense to Jeff Hafley’s 4-3 defense, but there are plenty of new names in the linebacker room this year.

The 3-4 to 4-3 change should come with some adjustments, which includes how the roster is constructed when the defense will demand more bodies at the position. The Packers have plenty of options to fill out the back end of their roster, on top of players who should contend for one of the three “starting” roles on the defense, which leads to a slight level of uncertainty about what the team will end up looking like by Week 1. The fact that Green Bay is having to replace one of its starters, De’Vondre Campbell, this offseason doesn’t help on the prediction front, either.

With all that in mind, let’s dive into the team’s linebackers and what we can expect from their roles in 2024. As a reminder, this is our publishing schedule for our positional preview series:

Quay Walker

The clear starter on the 2024 roster at off-ball linebacker is Quay Walker. The former first-round pick has been praised by Hafley, though, the defensive coordinator has yet to state which position Walker will play or whether or not Walker will be the “green dot” play-caller on the defensive side of the ball, as he was last season.

Don’t make too much out of that, as both Hafley and general manager Brian Gutekunst have stated that they hope that the Packers’ linebacker roles are interchangeable. They’ve also stated that they’ll live in the nickel world, which should mean that the two linebackers on the field the most will be mostly playing in stack alignments. This is notable for true 4-3 looks, though, as many 4-3 teams in the NFL walk down their “Sam” linebacker to the line of scrimmage and play an under front that deploys the nose tackle to the strong side of the formation (to the tight end.) Instead, Green Bay seems to be content playing an over front where the nose tackle will be on the backside of the formation and linebackers will all play from depth.

It’s hard to make the case that the 24-year-old Walker has lived up to the hype of being a 22nd overall pick yet, but he did take a step forward last season. With the Packers expected to play single-high defenses in 2024, which should give underneath defenders an extra player to narrow down their assignments, Walker’s game should be more streamlined this year. Hopefully, that leads to a breakout season.

Edgerrin Cooper

Isaiah McDuffie

Ty’Ron Hopper

The following three players have a chance to earn a starting role opposite of Walker this year, either in nickel or 4-3 sets: Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie and Ty’Ron Hopper. Cooper was a second-round pick out of last month’s draft and was used at Texas A&M mostly as a stunting blitzer, slot defender and quarterback spy in the RPO, option and scramble-heavy Southeastern Conference. There should be a learning curve for Cooper to hit the NFL field consistently, but he was the most talented off-ball linebacker in the 2024 class for a reason. My best guess is that Cooper would be an outside linebacker in the 4-3 defense, as that’s the position he played with the Aggies.

The second option here is McDuffie, a third-year player out of Boston College — who actually played for Hafley at the college level. McDuffie took a huge jump in playing time last year, as De’Vondre Campbell was unable to suit up for several games and when he returned did not play run downs. During the regular season, McDuffie played 513 defensive snaps and made eight starts, when he had previously recorded 174 and one in his first two seasons in the league. He’s a little undersized, but he’s also the Packers’ most experienced option other than Walker.

The last player in this tier is third-round pick Ty’Ron Hopper, who to me was one of the more questionable selections of the Packers’ 2024 haul. Hopper looked like he was built like a safety on film, but showed up at a surprising 231 pounds at the NFL combine in February. I think of him as a Joe Thomas Jr. type of player, a linebacker you want to contribute on special teams and as an obvious passing downs coverage defender. Green Bay must have felt differently, though, as Gutekunst mentioned that the team graded Hopper — who was generally thought of as a fifth-round-ish pick coming into the draft weekend — as a second-round selection.

Eric Wilson

Kristian Welch

These two players are going to start camp on the roster bubble. I assume the Packers will be spending more roster spots on the linebacker position, as the coaching staff and front office have said as much this offseason, but it’s still worth mentioning that the team could look at swapping these players for outside options around the cutdown deadline.

Eric Wilson has spent the last two years on the Packers, contributing mostly as a special teamer. He’s played just 156 total defensive snaps in the last two years, mostly when Campbell has been out with an injury, compared to 505 special teams reps. This offseason, he was given a veteran benefits contract, which allows the team to carry him on the roster with just a $985,000 cap hit, despite the fact that he’s being paid $1.38 million this year.

Kristian Welch is a player that you probably haven’t noticed unless you’re paying close attention to the Packers’ special teams unit. He spent three years playing special teams for the Baltimore Ravens before signing with Green Bay’s practice squad and eventually being activated to the 53-man roster last year. In total, he saw action in 14 games, and he played all 210 of his snaps on special teams. Previously, he played 44 defensive snaps and 891 special teams snaps for the Ravens.

Christian Young

Ralen Goforth

These two players are more likely to make the practice squad than the Packers’ 53-man roster. Christian Young is a former hybrid safety-linebacker who is now going into Year 2 of his full-time linebacker conversion with Green Bay. He’s listed at just 6’1” and 221 pounds, which makes him small compared to the average NFL linebacker. He spent last season on the Packers’ practice squad, but he never was activated for game action during the 2023 season.

Ralen Goforth is another undersized player who was listed at 237 pounds by Washington’s official website but is listed at 227 pounds by the Packers. In four years at USC, Goforth started 17 games before graduate transferring to Washington for his last season of college eligibility. There, he was a rotational off-ball linebacker in the same room as Edefuan Ulofoshio, who was taken in the fifth round by the Buffalo Bills. He’s also the brother of Randall Goforth, a former cornerback who played two seasons in the NFL before a stint in the AAF with the Arizona Hotshots.