From zero to four: How the interceptions started coming Eric Stokes' way

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GREEN BAY – Statistically, Eric Stokes displayed a monumental shift in his game over his final year at Georgia.


While playing in 27 contests with 16 starts over the 2018-19 seasons, Stokes didn't have a single interception. Then during 10 games in 2020, he picked off four passes and returned two for touchdowns.


So how did the Packers' first-round draft pick make such big strides so quickly? His position coach the last two years with the Bulldogs, Charlton Warren, believes two things were at the core of it.


First, from the time Warren (who's now the defensive coordinator at Indiana) arrived in 2019 as Georgia's defensive backs coach, he saw in Stokes a determination to learn not just his responsibilities within a given defensive call, but everybody's. He wanted to understand the concepts on a big-picture level.


"He would ask (in practice) to play other positions. He would ask to go in and play nickel, and he would ask to move to safety for reps," Warren said in a phone interview with packers.com. "So through all your spring and summer workouts over a 2½-year period, he got 100 reps at 'star,' 25 reps each at safety. He played both corners, 25 reps at dime. In that way, he was cross-trained, which made him learn all three levels."


Warren added that by Stokes' redshirt junior season last year, he could tell him what the three-technique tackle was doing up front on certain third-down calls, or what the dime or "star" was up to, no matter where he lined up himself.


In turn, he fully grasped when he had to stay over the top on a route, or when he could aggressively attack the ball, and the results followed.


"He got interceptions in certain calls because he understood where his help was and what the strength of the defense was," Warren said. "I've always talked to guys about knowing the strengths of the defense and being able to mitigate the weakness of a defense, and he did a really good job with that premise."