The Green Bay Packers added and subtracted from their perilously thin cornerback room in this year’s legal tampering window. Brian Gutekunst added veteran cornerback Benjamin St-Juste and released Nate Hobbs one year after signing him.
The Packers owed Nate Hobbs a sizeable bonus when the new league year starts. Instead, the Packers released him with a post-June 1 designation, allowing the Packers to spread the dead cap out over the next two seasons.
While a team already low on cornerback depth can use all the help they can find, Hobbs’ first season in Green Bay wasn’t inspiring. It was already a fairly hefty contract for an oft-injured player, and Hobbs wasn’t able to shake his injury woes or be impactful when he was available.
By releasing Hobbs, Gutekunst is admitting the signing was a mistake and looking to move on rather than hope for an unlikely turnaround. It doesn’t nullify the original signing. Still, not succumbing to the sunk-cost fallacy is a promising sign for a team seeking tangible improvement.
Historically, the Packers aren’t the most trigger-happy team in free agency. However, Brian Gutekunst is willing to make a splash.
Usually, those splashes are well thought out. In 2019, Gutekunst signed Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Billy Turner, and Adrian Amos, and got spectacular value from each. In 2024, he brought in Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney, who both made the Pro Bowl immediately.
Gutekunst generally targets healthy, young players with room to grow. In 2025, he somewhat broke that trend by acquiring Hobbs and guard Aaron Banks.
While both were young, Hobbs and Banks had injury histories.
Nate Hobbs started in just 38 out of 68 possible games with the Las Vegas Raiders before coming to Green Bay. Unfortunately, Hobbs couldn’t stay healthy in Green Bay, either, playing in 11 games (starting in five). He missed time in the beginning, middle, and end of the season thanks to various knee injuries.
Hobbs is also smaller than Green Bay typically likes their corners, at 6’0″, 195 lbs. The Packers also probably overpaid him by market standards on a four-year, $48 million deal. The Packers banked on Hobbs, a smaller corner who mainly played in the slot, being able to be a perimeter threat. Had it worked, they would have gotten good value.
But Hobbs never excelled as a boundary corner, and he wasn’t even the defense’s best option as a slot corner thanks to Javon Bullard settling into the role. Hobbs had zero interceptions, just two passes defended, and wasn’t a steady tackler.
Per Bill Huber’s end-of-season rankings:
Of 98 corners to play at least 240 coverage snaps (Hobbs played 245), he was 73rd in completion percentage (68), 28th in coverage snaps per completion (13), 82nd in yards per completion (14.1) and 90th in passer rating (125.3).
Injuries obviously played a factor in production, but Hobbs never found a role for himself with the Packers.
Had he returned, Hobbs likely would have competed at boundary corner again. At this point, Bullard is on a beautiful trajectory as a slot defender, and Evan Williams is an excellent companion for McKinney. There’s no need to force Bullard back into the safety role. Still, it means someone has taken Hobbs’ best fit, the slot.
At the right price, Hobbs could be a value add for a defense in need of a slot corner. Green Bay bet on Hobbs’ health and ability to excel outside of his most natural position. Most gambles don’t pay off.
Neither of Gutekunst’s 2025 free agents looked like good signings after one season. Banks will get another season to see if he can overcome his shortcomings. Green Bay’s need on the interior offensive line is too great to drop him, and he improved down the stretch.
But while many teams will stubbornly hold on to expensive free agents, Gutekunst was willing to part with arguably his worst free-agent acquisition as part of the effort to build a championship-quality roster.
The Packers even used the post-June 1 designation, something they rarely do, to part with Hobbs. The savings won’t help them much this year, but it helps their cap space over the next few seasons.
Green Bay still needs to drastically upgrade its cornerback room for new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. That was true whether Hobbs was back or not. But it says a lot that the Packers moved on after just one season and were unwilling to pay his roster bonus at the beginning of the new league year. The Hobbs signing wasn’t a good one for Green Bay. Thankfully, Gutekunst is willing to admit that and move forward.
