GREEN BAY — Here we are again.
If it feels like you read around this time last year that the Green Bay Packers’ most glaring need entering the draft might be at cornerback, well, you’re not imagining that.
The Packers were thin at cornerback last year, and they still are.
Having selected only three cornerbacks in the past four drafts, and with all three of them — Carrington Valentine (2023), Kalen King (2024) and Micah Robinson (2025) — having been taken in the seventh round, the position has not been replenished by draft picks.
If the 2026 season was starting today — as opposed to the team’s offseason program, which was set to officially kick off on Monday — the Packers would presumably start veteran Keisean Nixon at one cornerback spot and Valentine at the other, with free-agent signee Benjamin St-Juste the next man up.
While we don’t know what new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who was hired on Jan. 28 but has not spoken with reporters yet, plans to do in the secondary, he has a history of playing three safeties simultaneously in sub packages, and the triad of Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard make safety the deepest position on the defensive depth chart.
Bullard played mostly in the slot as the fifth defensive back in the nickel defense under previous defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, an approach at least partly influenced by last year’s free-agent pick-up at cornerback, Nate Hobbs, not being able to stay healthy.
But that doesn’t mean the Packers have completely devalued the cornerback spot, and last year served as a cautionary tale of the dangers of being short on cover guys. They wound up promoting a pair of corners (Shermar Bartholomew, Jaylin Simpson) for the regular-season finale at Minnesota just to have enough cornerbacks to get through what was essentially a meaningless game.
Still, if they don’t make significant investments in the position in the draft — even with just eight picks at the moment, and no first-rounder to work with — it would be surprising.
Last offseason, the Packers moved on from four cornerbacks who’d been on their roster during the 2024 season — three who left via free agency (2021 first-round pick Eric Stokes, Corey Ballentine and Robert Rochell) and a fourth who was released in June after general manager Brian Gutekunst couldn’t find any trade takers for him (2018 first-round pick and two-time All-Pro Jaire Alexander).
Fast forward to this week’s 2026 NFL Draft, and all that’s really happened at the position is that they’ve swapped out last year’s free-agent pickup at cornerback (Hobbs) in favor of another (St-Juste).
“He was that third corner and whenever he got his opportunity to really play, I thought he played a very, very high level,” Gutekunst said of the 6-foot-3, 200-pound St-Juste, who played last season for the Los Angeles Chargers after starting his career in Washington.
“We liked him a lot coming out of the draft. His size and length on the outside is something we didn’t have a lot of, something we wanted to get. He was kind of a target for us.”
Asked at the annual NFL scouting combine in February if he felt cornerback was a position where he needed to add a starter, Gutekunst replied, “I think we have guys in-house that can do that but we want competition for those guys. I certainly would like to bring in those caliber of players that are going to push those guys.”
If Gutekunst believes Nixon and Valentine — both of whom are heading into the final year of their existing contracts — will be the team’s opening-day starters, with a push from St-Juste, there’s another possible wrinkle to consider: That Nixon could feel underpaid as the team’s No. 1 cornerback and might consider withholding his services to try to get an extension.
Nixon is in the last year of a three-year, $18 million deal he signed when he was still a special-teams player and part-time player on defense. He’s set to earn a $4.3 million base salary and has game-by-game roster bonuses worth $29,411.77 per game, or $500,000 if he plays all 17.
“I can play with anybody, no matter who matches up out there. I can cover everybody,” Nixon replied after the season when asked what he’d proven. “I had a whole gauntlet of receivers all year. I definitely held my own. Packed the stat sheet the last two years, playing inside, outside, being versatile. I definitely showed what I can do, for sure.”
What that might mean for him contractually, Gutekunst wouldn’t say.
“I wouldn’t talk publicly about that, but they all ask for raises, not just players,” Gutekunst said. “I thought he played very well for us and he’s a guy we like having on our team. He brings a competitive edge to us, but all those contract things we’ll keep in house.”
Packers depth chart
25 Keisean Nixon 5-10 200 28 8 South Carolina
24 Carrington Valentine 6-0 189 24 4 Kentucky
21 Benjamin St-Juste 6-3 200 28 6 Minnesota
36 Kamal Hadden 6-1 192 25 2 Tennessee
34 Shemar Bartholomew 6-0 200 25 2 Georgia Southern
38 Jaylin Simpson 6-0 180 25 1 Auburn
Best in class | Mansoor Delane, LSU.
If Delane had it his way, he wouldn’t be the top-rated cornerback in the 2026 NFL Draft. He’d be the No. 1 linebacker.
The 6-foot, 189-pound Delane likes to tackle, likes to be physical, and likes to surprise opposing receivers with his in-your-face approach.
“At my position, I always take pride in [how] I’m going to bring the fight to you,” Delane said at the NFL scouting combine in February. “The receiver lines up, and you’re going to do what I want you to do. I dictate my game.”
Delane played his first three college seasons at Virginia Tech before playing one year at LSU, and while he played in 44 total games during his college career, he only had eight interceptions—with four of them coming as a junior at Va. Tech in 2024.
“I want to take the ball away more, and that’s a big area of improvement for me,” he said. “I want to be a game-changer..”
Next men up | Jermod McCoy, Tennessee; Chris Johnson, San Diego State; Avieon Terrell, Clemson; Colton Hood, Tennessee; D’Angelo Ponds, Indiana.
Pick to click | Charles Demmings, Stephen F. Austin.
The 6-foot-1, 193-pound Demmings came to Green Bay as one of the Packers’ 30 allotted pre-draft visitors, and while he’s likely to be selected on Day 3 of the draft, he does feel like a good fit for the way the Packers view corners.
A zero-star recruit coming out of high school, Demmings had just one Division I scholarship offer — from Stephen F. Austin. He turned down NIL offers to stay there and finished his career there.
“I wanted to leave a legacy, man,” he told the Dallas Morning-News.
After finishing his career with nine interceptions (including four last season) and 35 pass break-ups (nine last year), Demmings also took top-30 visits to the Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins.
“This what we been training for for the last two, three months,” Demmings said after his on-campus pro day. “Pressure makes diamonds, so that’s what we had a chance to do — shine like a diamond.”
History lesson | Despite that old adage that you can never have too many cornerbacks, the Packers’ history of draft investment at the position is uneven.
Although Gutekunst used first-round picks on the position twice—in 2018 on Alexander and in 2021 on Stokes — he’s only picked those three seventh-rounders in the last four drafts.
The only other cornerbacks selected during Gutekunst’s previous eight drafts were Iowa’s Josh Jackson (second round, 2018); Toledo’s Ka’dar Hollman (sixth round, 2019); and Appalachian State’s Shemar Jean-Charles (fifth round, 2021);
That track record makes him more like his immediate predecessor and mentor, Ted Thompson, than Pro Football Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf.
Although Wolf erred in 1992 when he took Florida State’s Terrell Buckley over former University of Wisconsin star Troy Vincent, that was the start of the modern-era Packers using high picks on corners.
Wolf took corners in the first round in 1995 (Arizona State’s Craig Newsome) and 1999 (Clemson’s Antuan Edwards). He followed Edwards with corners in the second (Vanderbilt’s Fred Vinson) and third (Memphis’ Mike McKenzie) rounds, and he also took corners early in the 1996 (Nebraska’s Tyrone Williams in the third round) and 1997 (William & Mary’s Darren Sharper in the second round) drafts.
Thompson’s lone first-round cornerback was a bust — Arizona State’s Damarious Randall in 2015 — and when he traded back out of the first round in 2017, he took Washington’s Kevin King with the first pick of the second round (No. 33 overall). Trading back meant the Packers missed out on UW’s T.J. Watt, who went to Pittsburgh at No. 29 and very well could end up in Canton, Ohio and a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Thompson also took Auburn’s Pat Lee (second round, 2008); New Mexico State’s Davon House (fourth round, 2011); Vanderbilt’s Casey Hayward (second round, 2012) and Miami of Ohio’s Quinten Rollins (second round, 2015).
But the Packers’ best cover men during Thompson’s tenure came either in free agency (Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson) or as undrafted free agent pickups (Tramon Williams and Sam Shields).
PACKERS 2026 NFL DRAFT PREVIEW SCHEDULE
Sunday, April 12 — QUARTERBACKS
Monday, April 13 — RUNNING BACKS
Tuesday, April 14 — WIDE RECEIVERS
Wednesday, April 15 — TIGHT ENDS
Thursday, April 16 — OFFENSIVE LINEMEN
Friday, April 17 — DEFENSIVE LINEMEN
Saturday, April 18 — EDGE RUSHERS
Sunday, April 19 — LINEBACKERS
Monday, April 20 — CORNERBACKS
Tuesday, April 21 — SAFETIES
Wednesday, April 22 — SPECIALISTS
Thursday, April 23 — DRAFT DAY PREVIEW
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