No position on defense needed more attention than cornerback this offseason. And, arguably, no position got more.
The Packers retained both starting corners from a year ago, fixed their mistake by moving on from Nate Hobbs, signed Benjamin St-Juste, and drafted Brandon Cisse in the second round. Given the resources available, that’s about as comprehensive of an overhaul as can be expected.
The defensive line got some similar work; the Packers signed Javon Hargrave and drafted Chris McClellan, but while at times frustrating, I don’t think the defensive line needed as extensive of an overhaul as the cornerback room did.
What will this work yield? That’s an interesting and difficult question to answer. Keisean Nixon drew a lot of heat from Packers fans last year, but some of the deeper analytics show he wasn’t really all that different in 2025 from past seasons, when results were better. And that’s true of Carrington Valentine as well. Cornerback is a high variance position, and the Packers may just have been caught in a bit of a weird, down year at an inopportune time, especially after Micah Parsons went down.
With a new defensive coordinator in town, it’s challenging to predict what the Packers’ cornerbacks could produce this year, especially new arrivals St-Juste and Cisse. What’s not hard to say is this: the Packers are counting on their corners in a big way, and they need better results this season than they got last year.
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Packers historian Cliff Christl comes out guns blazing, and he’s right on the money.
It seems like we’ve had everything at this point short of little green men holding a press conference on the White House lawn.