Packers fifth-round edge rusher looks to bounce back from injury-shortened 2024

Mike Spofford

GREEN BAYCollin Oliverfelt he learned some lessons from having his final college season at Oklahoma State cut short after just two games due to a foot injury.

The most important one?

"Stay patient, man," Oliver said during the Packers' rookie minicamp last weekend.

More patience may be required, because while Oliver slowly but surely worked his way back from foot surgery to showcase his talents at the Senior Bowl in January a key portion of the pre-draft process that led to the Packers drafting him in the fifth round with pick No. 159 overall how quickly he can find and earn a role in Green Bay's defense remains to be seen.

As a 6-2, 240-pound speed rusher off the edge, he's the type of pass-rushing piece Jeff Hafley didn't really have last year, his first as Green Bay's coordinator.

Then again, as last season wore on, Hafley kept finding ways to unleash rookie linebackerEdgerrin Cooper, at 6-2, 229, in the pass rush, and his impact was evident down the stretch.

So while Oliver and Cooper play different positions and line up in different spots, they possess a similar body type with comparable speed Cooper clocked a 4.51-second 40-yard dash at the 2024 scouting combine, while Oliver ran a 4.56 this past February.

Big picture, the right package and situations may not yet be known, but if there's a way to incorporate a speed rusher off the edge in his defense, Hafley will find it.

"I'm sure the coaches know my strong suits and the talents that I have," Oliver said. "I get to the passer. That's what I do best."

Oliver wasted no time harassing quarterbacks when he arrived at Oklahoma State, posting 11 sacks to earn Freshman All-America and Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors in 2021.

One of those sacks came on a late fourth down in the "Bedlam" rivalry game against Oklahoma and quarterback Caleb Williams, who last year became the No. 1 overall draft pick and QB for the Chicago Bears.

Speaking with the Green Bay media, Oliver called it simply a "cool moment," taking pains to avoid reminiscing too much and providing any bulletin-board material in the NFL's oldest rivalry.

More important to him was the rivalry win getting Oklahoma State into the Big 12 championship for the first time in a decade. The Cowboys lost that conference title game to Baylor but finished a 12-2 season with a Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame and a top 10 national ranking.

Oklahoma State hasn't repeated that level of success since but bounced back from a down 2022 (7-6) with a strong 2023 (10-4), which had Oliver, who had 11 sacks over the course of those two seasons and ran his streak of second-team All-Big 12 honors to three years, fired up about 2024.

The foot injury in the second game of the year ruined that, but Oliver had shown he might've been on his way to another big season, with one sack and seven QB hurries in just five quarters of play.

Now that he's found his draft destination and is preparing to embark on his pro career, Oliver has chalked up last year to "a bump in the road," and his focus is forward.

He's coming to a city that is all football, all the time, with its own rivalry games, and looking to get back to where it was a couple of years ago, which was on the verge of competing for a championship.

After what he endured last year, Oliver is on board and eager to get going.

"When I'm on the field and whenever the pads get going, that's when it's really going to be like, alright, let's get it," he said.

"At the end of the day, this is my job and I want to treat it like that. This is a perfect place for me."