Oft-injured Packers cornerback Eric Stokes enters season with 'something to prove' (2024)

GREEN BAY — Eric Stokes understands why there are doubters. He gets it.

When you’re coming off back-to-back injury-plagued seasons, when the Green Bay Packers had little choice but to decline the fifth-year option on your contract, when you played only 110 defensive snaps last season and have been on the field for just 12 of the team’s last 36 games over the past two years, who can blame folks for doubting you?

Certainly not Stokes, the Packers’ 2021 first-round draft pick and fourth-year cornerback whose once-promising career has hit the skids — but could be on the verge of a bounce back.

“I’ll always feel like I got something to prove, especially coming off two injuries, the two seasons I’ve had,” Stokes acknowledged following the second of the Packers’ two organized team activity practices open to reporters so far this offseason. “I just can’t wait to come out Week 1 and show everybody.”

If Stokes is indeed in the Packers’ starting lineup on September 6 when they kick off the regular season against the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil, lining up opposite No. 1 cornerback Jaire Alexander and delivering on the potential that made him the 21st overall pick in 2021, the Packers would be thrilled.

If he manages to stay healthy and in the lineup for all 17 games in 2024, the Packers will be even happier — and Stokes will have set himself up for a nice payday, be it from the Packers or another team when he hits the free-agent market next March.

And as of right now, the signs are encouraging.

“I think he’s as good as I’ve ever seen him. Both mentally and on the field,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said last week, after Stokes ran with the No. 1 defense at his customary cornerback spot in new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s scheme.

“I want to temper the expectations with that, but I really mean that. He’s out there competing each and every day. He looks fully healthy. He’s doing a great job of challenging our wide receivers.”

He’s also challenging himself. Stokes’ problems began on November 6, 2022, when he suffered knee and foot injuries on the same play in a loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. The foot injury required surgery that left him in a wheelchair for months, prevented him from practicing throughout training camp this summer and landed him on the physically unable to perform list to start last season.

And when he finally got medical clearance to return to game action, he played a not-so-grand total of four special-teams snaps at Denver on October 22 before sustaining a hamstring injury.

That injury turned out to be so severe he spent the next seven games on injured reserve before returning against Tampa Bay (and giving up a touchdown) in a Dec. 17 loss to the Buccaneers only to re-injure the hamstring in practice leading up to a New Year’s Eve game at Minnesota to send him right back to IR.

“He’s battled through a bunch of adversity, as we know. Just for him to come out every day and just work to get better, that’s a blessing in itself,” Alexander said. “I’m very proud of him.”

Nevertheless, Stokes’ injuries made it a no-brainer for the Packers to decline the $12.47 million guaranteed one-year deal for 2025 that the fifth-year option would have paid him.

“Everybody’s got a little story. But, man, this just taught me so many lessons, taught me so many different little things that I can’t wait. I can’t wait,” Stokes said. “This a new Eric. Well, I wouldn’t say new. He’s pretty much the same — but just a better, more experienced (one).”

One aspect to that “new Eric” that LaFleur sees is a return of Stokes’ upbeat, positive persona. Understandably downtrodden last year, Stokes tried to maintain his sunny disposition through it all, but even he reached his breaking point.

“From the start, I was mad. I was frustrated. Everything was just going wrong,” Stokes said. “I’ve been through so much. It is what it is. You could have your adversities, but it’s how you’re going to deal with it the next day. Because I know for a fact I’m blessed.”

And that’s not just happy talk, LaFleur said.

“I think you see that personality is back,” LaFleur said. “That’s tough on players when they’re going through an offseason not having opportunity to really build upon their bodies when you’re just focusing on rehabbing and getting healthy. He’s had a chance to really develop his body. He looks in great shape. I think the play says the same.”

Like wide receiver Christian Watson, Stokes traveled to the University of Wisconsin about a week after the Packers’ playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers to meet with specialists at UW’s Badger Athletic Performance and undergo hamstring testing.

While Watson’s testing showed an asymmetry between the strength of his right and left hamstrings, UW’s tests on Stokes confirmed what he already believed was amiss: That the foot injury and subsequent surgery changed his gait and put added stress on his other leg muscles.

“My foot wasn’t as strong as it needed to be, so that’s why it put more pressure on my hamstring, my calf and all that stuff,” Stokes said. “It’s crazy how everything’s connected in your body.”

And now that his body is feeling better, Stokes is in a better frame of mind, too. His hope is that everything continues trending up.

“I come back, I feel even better. I feel like I’m faster than I was before,” Stokes said. “I ain’t had this much fun since my rookie year. After that, it was just a lot being in my own head, dealing with a lot of (adversity).

“This is football. This is a little kids game at the end of the day. I’m just going to go out there at 110 miles per hour. Everything else, I can live with.”