Nate Hobbs was the Green Bay Packers‘ only notable offseason addition at cornerback, signing a four-year, $48 million deal. He will essentially replace the snaps the Packers are losing with the departures of Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes, but will the former Raider be a net positive for the defensive backfield?

His career in Las Vegas was up and down, much like the team’s overall performance since he was drafted in 2021. It is difficult to pin down and predict which version of Hobbs Green Bay will get, but here is his overall profile as a player according to the statistics:

Strengths

Over a four-year span, it is tough to rank at the top of the league consistently in any metric, especially at the cornerback position, which is arguably the most volatile of any on the football field.

Of the statistics used for this profile, there are only two in which Hobbs has excelled across his four years, and both of them relate to his run defense.

Since entering the league, Hobbs ranks in the 79th percentile among qualified NFL cornerbacks in stops per game. Stops are tackles which result in a failure for the offense on a given play.

He has been active in the run game, ranking in the 81st percentile for solo tackles per snap. His willingness to contribute as a run defender will no doubt have appealed to Packers’ defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.

Weaknesses

In terms of weaknesses, there are a few numbers in which Hobbs has performed poorly in coverage. He ranks in just the 16th percentile in reception percentage allowed (REC%), and the 29th percentile in forced incompletion rate (FI%).

Hobbs has been an above average man corner overall, but has struggled more in zone coverage, ranking in the 30th and 23rd percentile for REC% and FI% respectively when in zone. He also falls in just the 27th percentile for REC% when lined up in the slot.

In the same vein, he falls in just the 31st percentile in coverage snaps per reception allowed (S/REC).

In the run game, Hobbs is plenty involved, but far from perfect. He ranks in the 29th percentile for missed tackle rate, having missed 15.7% of his career tackle attempts.

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While it is not exactly encouraging to see zero true strengths relating to Hobbs’ coverage ability, there are plenty of signs of progress. It is important to remember a corner’s playing style often means they will fare well in one coverage metric at the expense of another.

For example, while Hobbs only ranked in the 3rd percentile as a rookie for REC%, he was in the 95th percentile for yards allowed per snap (Y/SNAP). This means that although quarterbacks were completing passes on him, the returns were low.

Another important piece of context is that after a successful rookie year playing mostly in the slot, the Raiders moved Hobbs outside in his second season, and his overall numbers plummeted. He was then moved inside again in 2023 and 2024, and his statistics rebounded.

This is reflected in his Y/SNAP, which dropped from the 95th percentile in 2021 to the 19th percentile in 2022, then up slightly to the 26th percentile in 2023 before a big jump to the 73rd percentile a year ago.

Hobbs ranks in the 53rd percentile for Y/SNAP across his career, just above average.

It is a similar story with his NFL passer rating allowed (NFLPR), interceptions per target (INT/TGT) and S/REC figures.

After ranking in the 53rd percentile in NFLPR as a rookie, Hobbs fell to the 20th percentile in his sophomore season, then improved to the 32nd and the 42nd percentile in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

He only has three career picks, with one each in 2021, 2022 and 2024, but in terms of INT/TGT his rankings have gone as follows: 51st percentile, 1st percentile, 42nd percentile, 62nd percentile.

For S/REC, Hobbs ranked in the 75th percentile as a rookie before two poor years in the 18th and 5th percentile, rebounding to the 30th in 2024. His REC% has improved over time from just the 3rd percentile as a rookie to the 35th percentile

The pattern is consistent in terms of a hot start, then a steep decline before gradually getting his numbers to a more respectable place again.

Penalties committed is one of the better indicators of a cornerback’s ability in coverage, and this is one of the best and most improved aspects of Hobbs’ game.

He has just 11 career penalties. For context, there were seven NFL corners with at least that many just in 2024.

Since 2022, Hobbs went from the 37th percentile in penalties per snap to the 54th, to the 99th last season, when he did not get flagged a single time. He ranks in the 64th percentile across his career for penalties per snap, making opponents earn their yards.

His PFF coverage grade might say differently, but Hobbs was a better cover corner overall in 2024 than he was in either of the previous two years according to the underlying numbers.

When viewed as a collective, the metrics show a player of almost identical quality to Hobbs’ breakout rookie year, even if it manifested in a different way.

2024 was also Hobbs’ best season as a slot corner based on the statistics, which paint him as one of the best in the NFL. He ranked above the 60th percentile in REC%, NFLPR and S/REC when lined up inside, and was in the 76th percentile in Y/SNAP.

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The areas Hobbs has consistently become less effective over time are not in coverage, but in run defense and as a blitzer.

He profiles as a worse run defender overall than he was in previous years, although still above league average for the position, and it is worth remembering he has suffered and played through injuries at times as well.

Hobbs ranked in the 43rd percentile in missed tackle rate across his first two seasons, but fell in just the 26th and the 8th percentile in 2023 and 2024. This is a concerning trend which he will need to reverse.

After performing as one of the most effective blitzers from the cornerback spot as a rookie, Hobbs was not used in that role frequently enough to qualify for grading in 2022, likely due to him moving to outside corner full time.

Even when he returned to the slot in 2023 though, the results have not been the same. His rankings for QB hurries/hits per pass rush opportunity, sacks per opportunity and PFFs pass rush productivity (PRP) metric have all fallen year on year to career lows in 2024 across the board.

The discussion around what Hobbs is, or could be for the Packers, is a tricky one. Looking at his career as a whole, he profiles as right around a league average corner, or maybe a few ticks above average. But it is not as cut and dry as that.

After the impressive rookie year Hobbs had, the following two seasons look on paper like he completely lost his way when moving to the boundary, then struggled initially to reacclimate back into the slot, before kicking into gear again in 2024.

The fact he has dealt with various injuries and played through them also clouds the assessment, but the important thing for the Packers, and likely why they signed him, is that Hobbs appears to be back on the right track.

If Hobbs was being looked at purely as a slot corner, it would be a much cleaner evaluation. He has played well above average in two of the three years he has been primarily deployed there, and 2024 was his best year according to the stats.

Adding to the curiosity though is the fact the Packers have been so insistent Hobbs can play outside.

While he did it almost exclusively in his college days, and has done it in the NFL, his lone season playing mostly on the perimeter with the Raiders was a disaster.

Perhaps if he had been given more time on task, significant progress could have been made, and maybe Green Bay, who have other options to play in the slot, can unlock Hobbs’ ability to be a more reliable outside corner at the top level.