The Green Bay Packers narrowly escaped a let-down game, holding on for a 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals to move to 4-1-1 on the season.
While there’s plenty to clean up, perhaps the biggest concern right now for the Packers on either side of the ball has been a disappointing level of play from cornerback Nate Hobbs.
It was another game to forget from the recently-acquired corner, allowing four catches on five targets for 86 yards while also getting caught with a holding penalty on a crucial fourth-quarter
drive for Arizona that allowed them to retake the lead with a field goal to go up 23-20.
The 26-year-old has looked remarkably passive in coverage. throughout the season, focusing too much on his drops in zone and covering grass over players. In fact, heading into Sunday’s game, Hobbs had allowed nine catches on 15 targets, allowing a pair of touchdowns with zero interceptions and a single pass breakup.
For all of the talk of Hobbs being a physical presence in training camp to the point of crossing a line, Hobbs has rarely looked like a dominant, physical corner, especially on plays like this one, where he bounced off of Trey McBride on one of his touchdown catches.
It’s not just that Hobbs is playing poorly, but the fact that he’s keeping a promising young player off the field in third-year cornerback Carrington Valentine.
Valentine was the ultimate Day 3 success story for Brian Gutekunst and his front office from the 2023 NFL Draft. He played admirably, stepping into a starting role late into his rookie season, then showed real flashes of being a full-time starter in 2024 with a pair of interceptions and a passer rating allowed of just 82.8 with zero touchdowns allowed when targeted.
The Packers are a franchise renowned for a “draft and develop” philosophy, but in this instance, decision makers seem more determined to keep rolling out Hobbs on the outside to try and justify his four-year, $48 million contract instead of giving a player like Valentine crucial game reps.
What’s even more surprising is that Hobbs is playing out of position as an outside corner. He’s primarily been a slot corner throughout his NFL career, but has almost exclusively played on the outside this season.
A move to kick Hobbs inside and allow Valentine to play out wide could be an option, but perhaps the Packers are more worried about drafting and developing second-year safety Javon Bullard, who has struggled in the slot in his first 1.5 seasons in the NFL. Bullard was a second-round pick, so giving him a longer leash to develop could justify that pick in the eyes of the Packers coaching staff and/or front office.
However, the struggles of Bullard and Hobbs are too glaring to justify Valentine logging just two defensive snaps on Sunday against Arizona. That’s even more true if Hobbs is trying to battle through a knee injury after missing the start of the season after a knee scope and then popping up on the injury report again with a knee issue heading into this week.
Maybe the Packers will make changes in the near future, but as long as Hobbs continues to be on the field, opposing offenses are going to have no fear in throwing his way, and that’s a serious problem.
