Alongside Aaron Banks, Nate Hobbs was the Green Bay Packers’ prized free-agent acquisition this offseason. Coming over on a four-year, $48 million deal with $16 million guaranteed, Hobbs appeared to be a starter for the foreseeable future.
In contrast, Carrington Valentine was a seventh-round pick in 2023 who has climbed the ladder to earn his spot with the team.
At some point, we all need to put the labels aside and recognize that Valentine is just an outstanding, reliable cornerback. He made his case loud and clear against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.
Valentine allowed just 29 yards when targeted by Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, per NFL Pro, and had a beautiful pass breakup on what would’ve been a touchdown for D.K. Metcalf.
In the first two weeks of the season, including the opener when Hobbs didn’t play, Valentine wasn’t just satisfactory. He was superb. Despite that, once Hobbs was cleared to return in Week 2, the tides slowly shifted. Hobbs garnered increasingly more of the playing time on the outside despite some obvious struggles.
That trend reached its zenith — or, really, its nadir — last week against the Arizona Cardinals when Hobbs logged 76 snaps (100% on defense) to Valentine’s two.
Nothing in Hobbs’ performances, nor Valentine’s, warranted that level of discrepancy. The dirty little secret that no one on the Packers staff will ever utter is that Hobbs was paid a pretty penny in free agency, and Valentine is on a rookie deal as a seventh-rounder, and they were desperate to see things turn around with Hobbs.
Entering Week 8, according to PFF, among cornerbacks with at least 100 snaps in coverage played, Hobbs ranked No. 74 in yards per catch allowed and No. 89 in passer rating allowed. It hasn’t just been kind of bad. It’s been downright awful.
With Hobbs’ contract a contributing factor, head coach Matt LaFleur and defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley served as motivators throughout the week leading up to the game against Pittsburgh, encouraging Hobbs through the media.
Halfley had this to say last week:
[Hobbs] is hard on himself, he’s extremely competitive, he’s talented. He’s getting into the swing of things after coming back from his knee that he had. I’m excited to see him because he’s a fighter and I believe in him and I believe he’s going to go out there and take a step forward this week.
LaFleur echoed similar thoughts.
Here’s what I’ll tell you about Nate. Nate’s a competitive dude that takes a lot of pride in his work. He loves ball and I think he will rebound and, in the end, he’ll be better for it. … So, yeah, are there some rough moments? I think that’s one of the beauties of this, especially playing that position, you better be resilient in this league because there’s going to be times when you’re going to get beat. … He will bounce back.
Instead of Packers fans having to shield their eyes and pray that it would be different on Sunday night, the Packers benched Hobbs for Valentine. It was a complete role reversal from the week prior, with Valentine getting 62 snaps to Hobbs’ four.
Valentine pounced on the opportunity and was brilliant. Not only did Valentine look superior to Hobbs, but there’s a serious case that Valentine may be the best cornerback on the team. While Hobbs has gotten a lot of the blame on the outside in recent weeks, Keisean Nixon hasn’t been much better.
Nixon was picked on early by Rodgers on Sunday night, and, quite frankly, it was surprising to see Pittsburgh not go back to that well more often. Nixon graded out as the second-worst performer on the defense, according to PFF.
Even with slumping play from Nixon and Hobbs, and with Valentine elevating his game, LaFleur was non-committal in handing things over to Valentine as one of the full-time starting cornerbacks on the outside.
CV got an opportunity and he went out there and I thought he played really competitively the entire game. … I thought all-in-all he showed physicality. He was challenging guys. There was just no gimmies. … It’s going to continue to be a competitive situation because we still have a ton of confidence in Hobbs. So all of those guys, Keisean, they’re all going to be competing for playing time.
Green Bay deserves credit for sitting a player who was struggling mightily after just forking over a lucrative deal to him. That isn’t easy; ego and pride can always get in the way.
What LaFleur said on Monday is fine on the surface, but one fact remains clear: Valentine is the best thing Green Bay has going for it at cornerback. Relegating him back to a bench role would be malpractice. Valentine has earned his spot on the field this week against the Carolina Panthers and is very likely to keep it.
