Eric Stokes was Elite for the Packers as a Rookie
In last year's NFL draft, the Green Bay Packers selected former Georgia Bulldog Eric Stokes with the 29th overall pick. During his rookie season, Stokes put up unreal numbers that ranked at the top with some of the best in the league and proved he was worth a day one draft pick.
In week three of the NFL season, Stokes was officially named a starter for the Packers and he took advantage of that opportunity. After week 3, Stokes held that starting spot for the remainder of the season and held his own with the best of them every single week.
Typically, anytime a quarterback sees the young and inexperienced guy lined up on the field it leads to that player being tested any chance the offense gets. Quarterbacks quickly learned though that Stokes was not a player to be fooled around with.
During his rookie campaign, Stokes allowed just a 49.5 completion percentage when he was targeted. That ranked fourth amongst all defensive backs in the NFL who were targeted more than 45 times last season.
In an article by senior Packers.com writer, Mike Spofford, Stokes touched on how his confidence continued to grow throughout the season, and said "Just the knowledge, just knowing what the offense is going to hit us with and just being more prepared,". He also stated that being confident in the decisions he made and being decisive with his decisions played a huge part in his success as well.
Stokes has become one of the premier successful development projects to come out of Georgia since Kirby Smart took over. Coming out of high school, Stokes was a three-star cornerback whom most teams just saw as a guy who possessed elite speed on the track but wasn't built for the big stage of college football.
Kirby Smart instead saw a player who had the ability to learn the skills of playing cornerback at the SEC and already had the abilities that are not coachable, such as being able to run a 4.24 40 yard time.
Stokes, of course, would end up committing to the University of Georgia and became exactly what Coach Smart and his staff hoped he would.
It didn't take long for Stokes to improve upon his game either. In his freshman season, Stokes appeared in 9 games and had 9 pass deflections with 20 total tackles. In his third and final year at Georgia, Stokes accumulated 20 tackles, four pass deflections, and four interceptions while returning two of them for touchdowns.
With Stokes now continuing his success in the NFL now, the Covington, Georgia native has become one of the best examples of Georgia's ability to develop and refine players to help them take that next step into the NFL.
Kirby Smart has become known as one of the coaches in all of college football at coaching defensive backs, and Eric Stokes continues to be living proof of that.
