Now that we’re on the other side of the Jaire Alexander drama, it’s time to focus on what the Green Bay Packers’ starting secondary could look like this upcoming season. As a refresher, here’s how it went down last year:
Keisean Nixon was officially kicked to outside cornerback full-time after being compensated like a slot defender on a three-year deal. When Alexander was out of the lineup due to injury, the cornerbacks who competed for playing time opposite of Nixon were Eric Stokes, who has since signed a $4 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders, and Carrington Valentine, who returns to the team.
In the offseason, the Packers added Nate Hobbs, who mostly played in the slot for the Raiders during his rookie contract, to a four-year, $48 million deal, which the NFL seems to believe was a market-setting deal at the slot position, considering how the average per year at the position, excluding Hobbs’ deal, jumped 30 percent following Hobbs’ signing.
At safety, Evan Williams won the job opposite of free-agent signing Xavier McKinney mid-season, which pushed second-round rookie Javon Bullard into the slot and allowed Nixon to play outside cornerback full-time. To say the least, Bullard’s time in the slot came with mixed results, particularly against the Detroit Lions — who found success targeting him and his below-average foot speed on crossing routes in their second matchup of the season before Bullard dropped out of action.
With Alexander out of the picture, the Packers’ 2025 secondary really boils down to there being five spots (in the team’s nickel set, which they’ll play two-thirds of the time) for six competitors. We’ll focus on the nickel sets today, as the expectation is that Nixon and Hobbs will be starting cornerbacks in base 4-3 looks. Last year, Green Bay essentially matched the number of cornerbacks they fielded on a given down to how many receivers opposing offenses put on the field. At the moment, 11 personnel is played in the NFL about two-thirds of the time, which means that two-cornerback looks are only expected to be played by the Packers about one-third of the time in 2025, should they continue that style of play this year.
Let’s go through Green Bay’s three options for their 2025 nickel secondary, including which player would be left on the bench in each scenario.
Option 1 - Evan Williams out
Scenario: Javon Bullard wins the safety job over Evan Williams.
Cornerback: Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine
Nickelback: Nate Hobbs
Safety: Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard
Bench: Evan Williams
Evan Williams and Javon Bullard, two 2024 draft picks, are being given the opportunity to battle it out at the safety position this summer. While Williams outperformed Bullard there as rookies, Williams starting next to Xavier McKinney has yet to be written in stone by the coaching staff. If Bullard, for whatever reason, ends up starting at safety, there’s a good chance that Nate Hobbs would kick into the slot, and Carrington Valentine would come off the bench in nickel sets.
The Packers have played an outside cornerback in base defense who then kicks into the slot before, so Nixon and Hobbs would probably be labeled as the team’s “starting” cornerbacks in this scenario, even if Hobbs is a nickelback in subpackages.
We haven’t seen much of Williams beyond his play at strong safety, with McKinney primarily playing the post, so if Williams doesn’t beat out Bullard, he would probably end up being a reserve. If Williams ever gets extended looks in the slot, we’ll let you know, but that’s not really a path the team has ever gone down with the former Oregon Duck.
Option 2 - Carrington Valentine out
Scenario: Evan Williams wins the safety job over Javon Bullard, and Javon Bullard wins the nickelback job over Nate Hobbs.
Cornerback: Keisean Nixon and Nate Hobbs
Nickelback: Javon Bullard
Safety: Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams
Bench: Carrington Valentine
With Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Xavier McKinney being projected starters, Option 2 would basically be the Packers admitting that they think too much of Javon Bullard and Evan Williams to bench them to play Carrington Valentine. With that being said, you can make the case that Valentine played better at outside cornerback last year than Bullard did in the slot.
While it took Green Bay a while to actually give Valentine full-time snaps at cornerback, because the team insisted on trying to make Eric Stokes happen following Jaire Alexander’s injuries, Pro Football Focus gave Valentine a coverage grade of 70.9 in 2024. For reference, only Alexander’s 77.2 grade was better than Valentine's among the Packers’ outside cornerbacks.
In the slot, Bullard posted just a 59.5 overall defensive grade last year and a 58.8 coverage grade. Bullard also slowed down significantly toward the end of the season, posting his worst grades (33.4 and 28.6) in Weeks 14 and 17, after missing action in Weeks 15 and 16 due to an ankle injury. To say the least, the end of the year was a stock down moment for Bullard, which was only reinforced by the Packers’ big free agent signing on defense.
Option 3 - Javon Bullard out
Scenario: Evan Williams wins the safety job over Javon Bullard, and Nate Hobbs wins the nickelback job over Javon Bullard.
Cornerback: Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine
Nickelback: Nate Hobbs
Safety: Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams
Bench: Javon Bullard
This, to me, is the most likely scenario following the Packers’ big payout to Nate Hobbs this offseason. Carrington Valentine, who is only 23 years old, probably would have been a Day 2 selection in the 2025 draft had he been available for teams to select. A trio of Keisean Nixon, Valentine and Hobbs isn’t nearly as bad as Packer fans seem to think at the cornerback position, even if there isn’t a “number one cornerback” on the team.
Spoiler: Green Bay zones off their coverages for the most part. The team’s DNA isn’t to match up cornerbacks to receivers, as they roll zone coverage toward a primary receiving threat — throwing several bodies at a problem and asking the pass rush to get home with four. The team hardly played man coverage in 2024, and it’s hard to imagine that they’ll do more of it in 2025 without Alexander in the mix.
While there’s no doubt that the upside at the unit has fallen since the Packers’ moved on from their $17.5 million cash commitment to Alexander, Green Bay is sitting in a relatively good spot with six potential contributors fighting for five opportunities for playing time this year. Because the Packers are throwing all three of these looks out in practice already, they shouldn’t have a problem withstanding a single injury in the secondary, because they’ll have reps banked with both Hobbs playing outside cornerback and in the slot and Bullard playing safety and in the slot.
If two injuries happen to the 2025 Packers, though, especially at outside cornerback, that’s when things will get very weird. There’s no proven cornerback depth behind Valentine on the bench, unless you count Gregory Junior’s 111 career defensive snaps played over three years — should he even make the 53-man cut on this team.
As far as the starting lineup goes, I’m not too worried about this secondary going into the regular season. The depth is the real story here, no matter how many complaints about who the “number one cornerback” is going to be in 2025.