Keisean Nixon is going to be a big part of the Packers’ defense in 2026.
Whether you view that as a promise or a threat is up to you, but it’s true either way. Nixon, for all his foibles and follies in training camp this year, is essentially a load-bearing piece of the Packers’ secondary. There’s simply no other solution for the Packers.
And there may never have been, for that matter.
Free agency this year was not precisely awash with cornerback talent. Alontae Taylor was the big winner this spring,
parlaying a moderately successful 2025 season with the Saints into a three-year, $58 million offer from the Titans. Jaylen Watson was just a bit behind him, putting four solid but overall undistinguished years with the Chiefs on tape and earning a three-year $51 million contract in Los Angeles as a result. Cordale Flott (Titans), Jamel Dean (Steelers), and Eric Stokes (yes, that one)(Steelers), rounded out the rest of the big spending, all signing deals averaging more than $10 million per year.
To say nothing of the cap machinations necessary to make those deals happen in Green Bay, I don’t think any of those are going to move the needle for a fan base frustrated with Nixon, and that’s before we’ve even addressed potential fit questions. You need elite long speed to succeed in a scheme like Jonathan Gannon’s, which eliminates Watson (4.51 in the 40) and Flott (4.52) as options. And unless you want another go at the Eric Stokes experience, that leaves Taylor and Dean as options. Both of them can run, but Dean is already entering his age 30 season and is well beyond the typical age cliff for cornerbacks, and Taylor is, well, not very good.
The Packers were reportedly in touch with former Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen, but he opted for a one-year $12 million deal with the Eagles. Given what we know about how the Packers tend to do business, the contract length was probably the sticking point; it seems safe to assume they’d probably want a longer contract. They don’t usually like to set themselves up to pay the same guy just a year into the future.
The Packers did sign Benjamin St-Juste, who’s been successful in small doses in schemes like Gannon’s, but seems suited primarily for special teams at this point in his career. As far as roster construction goes, it seems like that’s about as well as the Packers could have done in free agency: a solid teams guy with some background in the scheme.
So that’s free agency. What about the draft?
Consensus opinion seems to indicate the talent at cornerback dropped off right around where the Packers were picking. In short, it was Brandon Cisse or bust. To this point, Cisse seems to have held up his end of the bargain. He’s been good, looks like a lock for the starting lineup, and has done everything asked of him. In the draft, at least, it looks like the Packers did about as well as they could.
That doesn’t add up to a cornerback room designed to push Nixon out — or push him much of anywhere, for that matter. The Packers came into the offseason with Nixon and Carrington Valentine as their top two corners, and they exited it having added a promising rookie and a guy likely to play primarily special teams reps.
What of the supposed competition at cornerback, then?
Matt LaFleur’s comments about Nixon being in a competition are, in my eyes, a bit overblown. The Packers want to have a competitive camp; everybody does. But game it out — what happens as a result of this competition? Is Nixon actually going to be playing reserve reps when the season comes around? And, just as importantly, who’s playing instead of him?
It’s probably not St-Juste, who wasn’t a full-time player for the Chargers last year and hasn’t played more than 77% of the snaps in a given year since 2023.
And if it’s Carrington Valentine? Well, I guess just get ready to find/replace all of your pre-loaded complaints about Nixon with Valentine’s name, because everything people dislike about Nixon also applies to Valentine, and some of it is even worse. He, too, has inconsistent ball skills. He, too, is an inconsistent tackler (just ask Dallas Goedert). If Valentine lands in a bigger role, the most likely outcome is fans developing a strange, sudden respect for Nixon.
That’s why, for better or for worse, we’re stuck with Nixon, and while not ideal, it’s probably about as good as it can get right now.
The bottom line, though, is that this situation shouldn’t really be about Nixon at all. Sure, he’s been inconsistent in camp so far, but his belief remains unlimited, as it should. No defensive back should be anything other than infinitely confident in his own abilities. Nixon is just playing to his nature.
The question, then, is who let it get to this point. Even if there was little else they could have done this spring, the Packers have been in a position where Nixon has been their best, if not only, option at corner for at least two seasons. If we want to point fingers, it seems like that’s not really Nixon’s fault at all. Every criticism thrown his way should maybe be directed toward the string of decisions that led to him being in this position at all.
But that’s much harder to fit into an angry tweet.
