The Green Bay Packers made their first acquisition of free agency on Tuesday morning, signing former Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Benjamin St-Juste to a two-year, $10-million deal.
In a surprising corresponding move, the Packers released Nate Hobbs just one year into a four-year contract with a post-June 1 designation that would spread out his dead cap hit over the next two seasons.
As Justis Mosqueda wrote earlier today, adding St. Juste is likely a depth signing and doesn’t rule out the Packers from taking a bigger swing at the position (Tariq Woolen is still on the market at the time of writing this). However, after digging through the numbers and watching the film, there is a meaningful role that St-Juste can bring to Green Bay.
Core Special Teamer
At the bare minimum, St-Juste is likely going to become a special teams ace for the Packers.
St-Juste played on all four coverage and return units for the Chargers last season, logging 308 special teams snaps in 2025. For reference, Isaiah McDuffie was the only Packers player to log over 300 special teams snaps last season, and Bo Melton played the most special teams snaps of any cornerback with 185.
That shouldn’t be a surprise given St-Juste’s frame. Listed at 6’3” and 200 pounds, the 28-year-old has nice size and length along with the solid speed and movement skills to play as a gunner, vice, and a number of other different special teams roles.
But there’s also some defensive value that St-Juste might bring.
A Defensive Scheme Fit
St-Juste struggled to find a consistent role on defense earlier in his career, playing for Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders. However, he found his footing in a much more natural role with the Chargers last season, playing in a quarters-focused defense. He allowed a passer rating of just 60.9 when targeted 40 times, allowing just 19 catches with one touchdown and one interception.
It makes sense why the Packers were interested in him then, with new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon will likely bring a quarters scheme to Green Bay. On top of that, St-Juste also brings a completely different body type than the rest of the Packers’ current cornerbacks with legitimate size and length.
When targeted deep, St-Juste does a rock-solid job of using those physical tools, allowing him to stay in phase with receivers while naturally stacking them to force them to drift towards the sideline, closing off the potential throwing window for quarterbacks.
From off coverage, that length also shows up by allowing St-Juste to trigger downhill and stretch out to attack the catch point, resulting in some big plays on the ball.
Another underrated part about St-Juste’s game, dating back to his pre-draft days, is his change-of-direction ability. St-Juste posted elite agility scores coming out of Minnesota, and that shows up when he’s forced to quickly redirect to stay in phase with receivers.
There are some valid concerns with St-Juste. He took significant lumps as a defender during his time in Washington, and he may not have the top-end play speed to be consistently effective when targeted deep against true speed threats.
However, given the smaller deal, his special teams contributions, and the physical tools, this is a rock-solid signing by the Packers.