With how the NFL draft unfolded for the Green Bay Packers, it showcased a level of comfortability with the cornerback position–a unit that, at least from the outside perspective, has some unknowns heading into the season.
Depending on how you look at this group, you may see a room with Jaire Alexander on one side, and Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes competing for playing time on the other. Keisean Nixon will man the slot, while Corey Ballentine provides experienced depth.
However, there’s another perspective, where Valentine making a Year 2 jump certainly isn’t a guarantee. Stokes remains a question mark after struggling in 2022 prior to his injury and then missing most of 2023.
Nixon in the slot, meanwhile, could have been viewed as a potentially upgradeable position in the draft, and perhaps the Packers did that with safeties Javon Bullard or Evan Williams.
Instead, Brian Gutekunst and the Packers didn’t draft a cornerback until their last pick in the seventh round. It wasn’t necessarily their intention to wait that long–the board just didn’t fall correctly for them to do so earlier. But with that said, in the first two rounds, they certainly had the ability to add a potential impact player to that room and chose not to.
“I feel pretty good about it right now because we’re running around in shorts and everybody’s healthy,” said GM Brian Gutekunst after the draft. “So, you know, I understand the question. If it would have fallen right, we would have addressed that probably. But it just didn’t. it was kind of one of those years with that position. But right now, I really like our group and I like the way they look. We’ve got a long way to get to September with everybody healthy, but I like the way it looks right now.”
Cornerback is a premium position league-wide, but within the NFC North, a division that now features Justin Jefferson, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, along with Jared Goff in Detroit and the Bears and Vikings each draft a quarterback early, having a talented secondary is now a prerequisite.
Outside of any offseason addition or young players making a jump, hopefully contributing to any high-level play from this unit in 2024 will be new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and his defensive scheme.
This was a Packers secondary last season that struggled to make plays on the ball. In part, this was due to injuries they experienced on the back end, relying on young or relatively inexperienced players like Valentine and Ballentine, and Joe Barry’s defensive game-planning, which relied heavily on off-coverages, where defenders weren’t always positioned well to make those plays.
Under Hafley, however, we are going to see more man coverage opportunities for the cornerbacks. If we look at the pure skill sets that Alexander, Stokes, and Valentine have, this style better suits them. There will also be more five and six-man pressures, hopefully leading to some errant throws on which to capitalize.
On top of that, Hafley has been praised by former players for his ability as a teacher, and putting together gameplans that allow the defenders to react, rather than over think.
“I want us to be fast and physical and attack the ball,” added LaFleur. “We will be a little more vision-based on the back end, and I think that’s a great opportunity to be able to go out there and generate takeaways.”
The one cornerback selection that the Packers did make was on Penn State’s Kalen King. After an impressive 2022 season, where King had nine pass breakups, three interceptions and was an All-American, his play this past year fell off. King had only one pass breakup, no interceptions, and saw his completion rate jump from 45 percent to 61 percent.
King is still just 21 years old and has plenty of starting experience at the college level. As most seventh-round picks are, this is a swing on upside and potential from the Packers–although just last season, Valentine – a seventh-round pick – ended up being relied upon heavily.
“Certainly, he was a guy that we expected to go higher,” said Gutekunst about King, “and as we went through it, we felt very fortunate to be able to pick him where we did. He’s got a really nice skill set. Has played some high-level football at Penn State. He’s got some versatility to play outside and to play nickel as well.
“And again, I think his best football is ahead of him as well. He’s a young player. He was a three-year player coming out. So, hopefully, that does drive him. We’re going to have a very competitive secondary right now and I feel really good about that and it’s going to be fun to watch those guys excel.”