Shortly after last season ended, Brian Gutekunst said that the Green Bay Packers didn’t need “wholesale changes” at cornerback. His actions say something different.
The Packers used two of their six draft picks on cornerbacks, including their first selection in the draft, which came in Round 2. That has put the room in flux and is setting the stage for a CB2 battle between rookie Brandon Cisse and Carrington Valentine.
Veteran free-agent signing Benjamin St-Juste is also an option. However, he played some of his best ball last year as a reserve for the Los Angeles Chargers and missed all of OTAs and minicamp this go around with an undisclosed injury.
That will put St-Juste behind the 8-ball. And, after using their first pick in the draft on Cisse, Green Bay likely had other plans for St-Juste anyway.
Valentine had a less-than-desirable end to the season. Lackadaisical play, combined with poor tackling, created plenty of frustration among Packers fans. Still, it’s important to remember that Valentine is a good story. After being a seventh-round pick in 2023, Valentine has ascended into a starting-caliber cornerback. Would he start on all 32 teams? Probably not, but there’s no debate he’s at the threshold of starter-quality play.
The Packers played Valentine early in his rookie season in 2023, and he started 12 games. In the past two years, Valentine has logged 18 combined starts, and availability has never been an issue.
To go from seventh-round pick to locked-in roster spot to starting cornerback is no easy feat. It’s also fair that expectations continued to rise.
Gutekunst and the Packers clearly didn’t feel totally confident in the cornerback room as is, or else there wouldn’t have been nearly as much action on that front this offseason. They released Nate Hobbs, scooped up Cisse in Round 2, and Alabama’s Domani Jackson landed in Round 6. They added St-Juste in the first wave of free agency.
Valentine played most of the first-team reps during OTAs, but that shouldn’t be surprising. Green Bay typically does plenty of hand-holding with its rookies. However, as ESPN’s Ben Solak noted, the ideal outcome is for Cisse to win the job.
The Packers are notoriously patient with rookies, and Cisse is far from a finished product. South Carolina rotated its corners, and Cisse often didn’t play full games, even in his final season. But the most favored outcome in the Packers’ cornerbacks room is certainly Cisse winning the job over Valentine, who surrendered a passer rating of 126.1 when targeted last season. Only five outside cornerbacks were worse.
Last year, there wasn’t much pressure on the trio of Keisean Nixon, Valentine, and Hobbs. Behind those three were Bo Melton, a wide receiver attempting to convert to cornerback despite never taking a regular-season snap at the position, and Kamal Hadden, who also entered last year with zero regular-season snaps at corner.
The pressure will be different this year for Valentine, especially as Nixon — whether you like it or not — is locked into a starting spot. Valentine will now be looking over his shoulder directly at Cisse and St-Juste. The fact that this is Valentine’s contract year only ramps things up further.
Matt Schneidman of The Athletic put it perfectly when he described the situation Valentine will be in this season right before OTAs began.
Valentine has exceeded expectations as a seventh-round pick in 2023, but second-round rookie cornerback Cisse will be breathing down his neck starting on Wednesday. Gutekunst was complimentary of his starting cornerback duo this offseason, but we’ve learned to take everything the GM says publicly with a grain of salt after the Aaron Jones and McManus releases.
So, what’s the likely outcome here?
Given how Green Bay operates, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Valentine named the starter out of the gates. However, Cisse, barring something unforeseen, will also be getting notable run. The Packers may have Valentine listed as a starter on the depth chart to begin, but that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. Cisse and St-Juste will have their fair share of opportunities, and it’s certainly possible this could be one of those groups that’s constantly fluctuating throughout the season.
