Stokes on Injuries: ‘It Tests Me In Any And Every Way’

Stokes said he didn’t miss any games at Georgia due to injury. Now, with a mandatory four-game stay on injured reserve and maybe a couple weeks of practice to get ready for action, Stokes is looking at perhaps getting back on the field in early December. That would mean about 13 months on the sideline.

“All of this is new to me,” he said. “I ain’t missed no games at UGA. I only missed in high school; I’d really like to say I only missed one. Injuries are very, very new to me. It’s strange. It’s unique. It’s different. I ain’t never missed time. I ain’t never missed a game. So missing, fixing to be looking like a year, it’s very tough on me. It tests me in any and every way and all that stuff, but it just makes me a better person and a stronger human being at the end of this.”

For Stokes, the injury is another abrupt change of direction in his career. A first-round pick in 2021, he rose to the occasion during Jaire Alexander’s absence and played a huge role in the Packers earning the No. 1 seed. However, after a first-year boom, Stokes was a second-year bust. He went from one interception and 14 passes defensed in 2021 to zero interceptions or passes defensed in nine games in 2022.

Stokes was hoping to get his career back on track, to remind everyone just how good he was as a rookie. Instead, his career has hit another pothole.

“Any and everybody can say I had a down year. Overall, it’s all outside noise,” he said. “I know what I did. I know everything that the organization thinks of me and all this other stuff. At the end of the day, it’s just as long as I feel good inside, everything else really shouldn’t matter.”