Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley hasn’t given up on cornerback Nate Hobbs, and he wants you to know it. Hobbs struggled at outside cornerback in extended looks against the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals, but both Hafley and head coach Matt LaFleur sang his praises going into last week’s action against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Then Hobbs hardly saw the field.
In place of Hobbs, Carrington Valentine made the start and had a career game opposite Keisean Nixon,
who might have had the worst performance of his career. This week, LaFleur said that competition would continue at the outside cornerback position, between all three players.
Here’s the point in time where I beg the reader to give Hobbs a little bit of a break. First of all, most of the NFL considered him to be a slot defender, not an outside cornerback, when he hit the free agency market this offseason. When playing limited snaps in the slot this year, Hobbs has looked like a much more efficient player than he has been on the outside.
On top of that, Hobbs is also coming off meniscus surgery, which cost him time in both training camp and to start the regular season. This is all to say two things: I’m not sure Hobbs is 100 percent, and I’m not sure he’s playing his best position. Neither of those is his fault.
On Thursday, Hafley went back to bat for Hobbs, even after saying that Valentine “played one of the best games” in their time together in Green Bay. On the subject of Hobbs losing playing time in Week 8 against the Steelers, Hafley stated, “Nate Hobbs isn’t benched. This isn’t the last you’re gonna see of Nate Hobbs. There’s no confidence lost in Nate Hobbs. I said that last week. I have not lost confidence in him.”
I don’t think there’s a big difference between a benching or a sitting of a player, personally, but I also don’t think the Packers are just going to give up on the $48 million signing. In that respect, if that’s the case that Hafley is making, I agree with him.
What you can’t doubt, though, is that there was a clear change on the depth chart last week. In Week 7, Valentine played just 2 snaps at outside cornerback compared to Hobbs’ 74. In Week 8, Valentine played 76 to Hobbs’ 1, which came on a two-point conversion attempt, the last time we saw any Packers cornerback on the field defensively. On that one play, Hobbs subbed in for Nixon, not Valentine.
Hobbs also only played three snaps in the slot last week, one in a dime look, where the Packers play two slot defenders, and two as a direct substitute for safety Javon Bullard in obvious passing situations.
If Hobbs wasn’t benched on Sunday, he was at least sat. Either way, I don’t think this competition is over by any means. Look for the rotation to continue in the secondary, one way or another.
