Sports Xtra Exclusive: Packers Eric Stokes breaks down injury history and hopes for 2024

Eric Stokes welcome to the studio how's your day going today uh my day going good my day going good well welcome back to Green Bay during the off season you spent some time in Atlanta back home how was that how was recovery I know you had a couple injuries that will obviously talk about uh it's been good though going back home uh been been nice being around family uh giveing me some good southern food ain't ain't pretty much ain't nothing like it but rehab everything been going good though tell on rehab you and Christian Watson both went to W Madison at one point during this off season could you just share what you were doing down there and how it helped you during this recovery process uh pretty much we went down there we had different little things so we had to do different little test so we did some uh version of a 40 uh we did some little jump in some little isoo some different little things just to see how your quads your calf your hamstrings your different little muscles and stuff on your legs pretty much worked and just see how strong they was and just see the difference between each one what did you learn pretty much that uh my foot wasn't as strong as it as it needed to be to where uh everything else was around it was doing pretty much a lot of the work uh my calf was doing a lot of work my hamstring was doing a lot of work just pretty much it was just overriding my foot to where my foot was just weak so just helped me focus on that my dad has an expression you can't have a comeback without a setback so let's talk about the setbacks back two seasons ago in Detroit two injuries in once walk me through what was going through your mind during that game when you hurt both your knee and your foot oh to be honest I really didn't know I hurt the foot I just knew I hurted the knee oh man the foot it'll be bad it's just the knee like the only thing I'm worried about and all stuff so I really didn't know how bad it was until like a week after what was that locker room like during the game because wasn't it like four or five players on the Packers team got injured in Detroit in that same game yeah it was body after body of that game that was not uh that wasn't a good day especially for us it wasn't a good day um I went down or G went down with his ACL started the second half Christian Christian came in the locker room mad I was the heck like I was just coming out the shower so I was confused while he was coming in but yeah it was a lot of bodies dropping that day a lot of bodies dropping and you ended up being out for the rest of the season the Liz Frank foot injury was worse than you were expecting had you even heard of that injury before no I never I never even heard of that injury until then I still didn't even know how to say it so it took me a couple weeks to say L frank or whatever so it took me a little time to even just say the word you come back during training camp last season you're all eager to go I remember big smiles on your face then you get injured again what's the the difference between that first injury and the second injury when it comes to the mental load for you uh first time it's so or whatever but you still got an Outlook like you still got a bright Outlook like okay it is what it is I made Miss like the hardest thing for me especially dealing with the first one was me missing the Falcons Gamez it was my time to go back home so once I got over that everything else was like okay it is what it is I'm going still be able to play the rest of the season you know it's still on season know it is what it is so I can go ahead and deal with it all that stuff and then after that the second one is the one that was that one hurted the worst like out of any one of those like the second one hands down was the one that worse I remember Denver you're coming back you're back to play then what was it four special teams play I mean you're laughing right now but Eric what were you going through in that moment oh it was terrible in that moment I remember that vividly I remember the play I'm running down Gunner um and then just some reason just I felt that or whatever I knew instantly what it was I knew off the rip what it was coming to the sideline put ice on and just sitting down on the bench sitting down on like the little uh cooler or whatever and I'm just sitting there like ain't no way like ain't no way this is me like I done got activated this my first game back like I like my first time doing warm-ups all over again it was like every little thing and it was like ain't no way like this is like this is the way that we go do so that one was tough that one was tough what was going through your head in that moment because your face looked completely blank yeah it was just more so shock like I couldn't believe it it was just like ain't no way like everything that I've been through and all stuff all like little stuff that I don't went through before this like ain't no way like this is how it's supposed to be like I had like out of all my visions of me like making a tal like me like doing all this stuff that I had en vision for that game that was nowhere near something that was even in my thoughts so just sitting out on that Seline you just caught the pr reaction of like me just in disbelief like me I couldn't believe it like N I ain't Li this ain't me like there's no way this could be me speaking about visualizing your a first round pick when he got drafted out of college I assume you probably had some idea of what your career would look like how has what's happened to you so far lined up with that idea of what you had uh I mean it jumped out to a great start it was perfect like I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't even explain it better but then after that it showed you like hey it showed you the real of the NFL though it showed you the real group and like how everything supposed to be done how you supposed to move as a pro so it was lot a lot of little things that taught me overall to where actually happy that I that I actually kind of got hurt like actually like now me me looking back on it was like everything for a reason so it was great you are truly one of the most happy go-lucky people I've ever met in my life how did you keep that smile every week in the locker room because at the end of the day I know like God got a bigger picture from me so like at the end of the day like I'm blessed there's a lot of people that would love to be in that room or like just to be like just to be a packer so it's just like man it's a blessing like why would I hold my head or whatever like of course I'm going to have my moves I'm going be feeling so Ty type of way like I'm going be mad or whatever like I'm human at the end of the day so of course I'm going go through them feelings but at the end of the day man I'm blessed like I can't hold my head for too long like I'm living a dream like this is what little kids dreamed of and all that stuff so why would I hold my head for that and you've actually commemorated that feeling with a newer tattoo could you tell me about that tattoo uh yeah so I got a little tattoo on the bottom of my leg or whatever they say uh it get it get greater later I never forget that to like it been like that since my uh draft so since the draft or whatever like it was going how it looked like I was going to make the first round that's the only thing I want I want the first round and I'm sitting next to my homeboy named bie and we sitting there and like literally he was like he tapped me cuz he seen my whole face expression changing as it kept going it's kep look like I wasn't going to get first round he just looked at me he was like hey bro it G get greater later it G get greater later and then since then like literally like a couple minutes after that I think Green Bay had called and all that stuff so it just made it even more crazy and then that's and since then it stuck with us so like we always would say that like hey bro it could get greater later so when all this stuff was going on all stuff exactly what pretty much my mindset was going on it going to get greater later everything going happen for a reason it happening for a reason you going to learn your lesson you going to learn what you need to do to be the pro be the person that you want to be be the man that you want to be all this stuff he just he just putting you through this for your lesson welcome to the 2024 NFL season how is Eric Stokes today oh Eric Stokes today great uh Eric stok today great living uh enjoying the moment uh never taking it for granted uh because you know because you just never know uh and that's pretty much St this St the day well thinking about this upcoming season congratulations on your recovery your rehab and now it's back to hit the field thank you again for coming into the studio Eric again here with Packers cornerback Eric Stokes