Eric Stokes
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - AUGUST 07: Eric Stokes #22 of the Las Vegas Raiders looks on during the NFL Preseason 2025 game between Las Vegas Raiders and Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on August 07, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Green Bay Packers need some help in the secondary, and the team could turn back to a cornerback it once liked enough to draft in the latter stages of the first round.
Green Bay selected Eric Stokes at No. 29 out of Georgia back in 2021, but a run of bad injury luck led the Packers to pass on the fifth-year team option of his $12 million rookie deal for the 2025 campaign.
Stokes went to free agency last March and inked a $3.5 million agreement with the Las Vegas Raiders on a one-year prove-it contract, and prove himself Stokes did. He played 16 regular-season games, starting all of them, and tallied 53 tackles, including three tackles for loss, and five pass breakups.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) ranked Stokes 18th out of 114 cornerbacks who saw enough snaps to qualify last season, and the 27-year-old defensive back now returns to the open market having significantly rebuilt his value.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN named Stokes one of the top sleeper free agents of the 2026 class, per executives Fowler spoke with around the league during last week’s NFL combine.
“Stokes is another corner well-positioned; teams liked his tape last season, when he was finally healthy,” Fowler wrote on Sunday, March 1.
Spotrac projects Stokes’ market value at $22.1 million over a new three-year contract, which translates into approximately $7.4 million annually.
Packers Tried to Add Cornerback Help to Defense Late Last Season
Eric Stokes Robert Rochell Roster Moves
GettyFormer Green Bay Packers cornerback Eric Stokes.
Stokes, who produced a banner rookie campaign that included 14 passes defensed and an interception before injuries knocked him out of eight contests in 2022 and 14 games in 2023, was better than all of Green Bay’s regular cornerbacks last season by a wide margin — at least according to PFF’s advanced metrics.
Green Bay brought in former Pro Bowler Trevon Diggs at the end of last season and for the team’s brief, one-game playoff run, but cut him loose after falling to the NFC North Division rival Chicago Bears in the Wildcard Round of the postseason.
The Packers don’t have any prominent names in the cornerback room headed for free agency, but they do need upgrades at that spot this offseason if the defense hopes to compete at the highest levels of the sport come 2026.
Marshon Lattimore Floated as Option for Packers’ Secondary This Offseason
Marshon Lattimore
GettyCornerback Marshon Lattimore, formerly of the Washington Commanders.
Bill Huber of SI suggested late last month that Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson may be an option for Green Bay, though projecting the two-time Pro Bowler as a cut candidate is a significant reach.
Another player Huber mentioned is 29-year-old Marshon Lattimore, whom the Washington Commanders will cut ties with officially on March 11.
Lattimore was considered a potential trade target for the Packers in 2024, when the [New Orleans] Saints sent him to Washington. A Pro Bowler in four of his first five seasons, Lattimore has been unable to stay on the field. The past four seasons, he’s never played more than 10 games.
On the bright side, he gave up only a 54.5 percent catch rate last year, according to PFF. On the other hand, he was penalized nine times in nine games and is coming off a torn ACL sustained in November.
If Lattimore actually is a viable candidate in the collective eyes of Green Bay’s front office and coaching staff, than Stokes should be as well.