Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to feature an unheralded part of a Green Bay Packers defense that looks ready to take the rest of the NFL and put it in a commemorative box. Cornerback Keisean Nixon had the best game of his career against the Washington Commanders last Thursday night. Now, we get to see whether Nixon can
add to it as the season goes along.
Keisean Nixon has been a secret throughout most of his career, and he’s never been a superstar.
That may be about to change, and the ways in which it could really highlight how well Nixon has overcome his own limitations to his current status as the best cornerback in what is absolutely the NFL’s best defense.
An undrafted free agent out of South Carolina in 2018, Nixon signed with the then-Oakland Raiders, and never had more than 155 defensive snaps over three seasons with his first NFL team. The Packers signed Nixon to a one-year, $965,000 contract before the 2022 season, and they liked what they saw enough to re-up him for the 2023 season on a one-year, $4.75 million pact.
2023 was the first season in which Nixon was a real table-setter as an NFL cornerback; he had 937 defensive snaps overall, and 633 in coverage. While his coverage metrics weren’t insanely great — he allowed 74 catches on 95 targets for 717 yards, 333 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 100.7 — it was enough for the Pack to ask him back once again, this time on a three-year, $18 million contract with $6.5 million guaranteed. Nixon made that deal more than palatable with a 2024 season in which he allowed 57 catches on 86 targets for 529 yards, 169 yards after the catch, five touchdowns, one interception, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 97.5.
Still not “shutdown” per se, but better. In Week 1 of the 2025 season against the Detroit Lions, Nixon allowed four catches on four targets for 42 yards, 17 yards after the catch, and an opponent passer rating of 110.4.
Nixon’s most problematic play came with 1:33 left in the first quarter, when Nixon was playing outside in Cover-3 with linebacker Isaiah McDuffie in the slot. As Nixon dropped back in bail coverage against the vertical combination of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, McDuffie left to cover the flat, deep safety Javon Bullard’s deep drop was too deep, and Nixon was left hanging by either St. Brown’s out route, or Williams heading up the seam.
Still, the Packers won going away by a 27-13 score, and Jeff Hafley’s defense started to become the NFL’s worst nightmare with the addition of Micah Parsons.
Week 2 against the Washington Commanders on Thursday night would be a different test. This time, Nixon left it all up to nobody but himself. He was targeted five times, and not only did he not allow a completion, each of his five targets became pass breakups in Green Bay’s 27-18 win that was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate.
“The ball was just coming my way,” said Nixon, whose five pass breakups were the most by a Packers defender since Jaire Alexander’s five vs. the Los Angeles Rams in 2018.
“I usually don’t get that many targets in a game, but I was in my zone. I knew what I can do, and what I’m capable of, but y’all just understanding it now.”
People who know a lot more about defense than I do were similarly impressed.
Another thing that’s interesting about Nixon’s 2025 season is that he’s had 136 defensive snaps so far, and 123 have come at outside cornerback. One on the defensive line, 12 in the box, but none in the slot, which doesn’t fit Nixon’s previous usage profile — he was almost exclusively a slot defender in 2022 and 2023, and while he did move outside more often, especially when Alexander couldn’t stay healthy — this is a new modus operandi that Nixon’s coaches did see coming.
“If you ask Keisean that question and he’s standing up here, he embraces the challenge, he wants the challenge,” Packers defensive passing game coordinator Derrick Ansley said in January, when asked about Nixon’s constant position changes. “He wants the hard downs. He looks at himself as CB1, so he wants everything that comes with that. He’s definitely a guy that can go inside and outside, obviously. Just a testament to him how he works throughout the week to learn both spots. Obviously nickel, he’s got a lot more reps invested in that spot. Being able to go outside and then come back inside is like he’s coming back home. So we’re very proud of him. The fact he can do both jobs makes us deeper in the secondary.
“I think it’s unusual, especially in pro ball. You want guys that specialize in those jobs. I had a couple guys in college that have been a nickel or a safety, or a dime and a safety. Never a guy that really went from corner back inside to nickel. It’s a testament to Keisean’s ability to compete, because nickel is totally, drastically different from corner. At corner, you’ve got one misstep and the band’s playing. So he’s done a really nice job of wanting to do that, not blinking when it happens. He’s competitive, he’s a pro that way, and I’m very proud of him, because he’s come a long way at being a master at both jobs.“
Now, the question is whether Nixon can keep it up. He’s got a long week before the Packers play again on Sunday the 21st against the Cleveland Browns. Parsons, who has played with quite a few remarkable cornerbacks with Trevon Diggs as the clubhouse leader and DaRon Bland not far behind, has already put forth the challenge to his new teammates.
Nixon, for his part, seems to have no issue with the call-out, because he knows what Parsons does for the entire defense. In Green Bay’s two games this season, they’ve rushed three or four defenders on 84% of their snaps, because with Parsons, they don’t need to blitz. Like, at all. And in their rushes with just three or four, Green Bay has amassed five sacks, eight quarterback hits, and six quarterback hurries. When you can drop seven or eight into coverage all the time and still get a pass rush, it behooves your linebackers and defensive backs to take advantage.
Keisean Nixon certainly did it against the Commanders. Now, we get to see if it was a one-week blip, or if this is the guy we’re going to see from now on.
