GREEN BAY — Nate Hobbs knew what he’d signed up for. But he got a reminder as he was scrolling through his social media reels the other day, just as he was learning he was being benched from his starting spot. 

Corner is not a position, it read, it’s a personality type.

The Green Bay Packers veteran cornerback believes he has the right personality to succeed at one of football’s most demanding positions, where an otherwise strong performance can be ruined by a few bad plays — and a few additional bad plays can turn a game into an absolute nightmare.

That’s what happened in the Packers’ Oct. 19 win over the Arizona Cardinals, and the fallout was painful: The Packers benched Hobbs in favor of Carrington Valentine for last Sunday night’s win at Pittsburgh, and based on how Valentine fared against the Steelers, he’ll almost certainly start this Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field.

Against the Steelers, Valentine played 62 of the Packers’ 63 defensive snaps. Hobbs played just four.

“Not exactly what I wanted, but when you play corner, it boils down to a couple plays. I have a lot of snaps where I played really good,” Hobbs explained after Wednesday’s practice. “But that’s just the life of a corner. That’s why I signed up for it.

“A lot of times you’ve got to go through some things. People are going to see what they see. People are going to judge you how they judge you.”

It was hard not to judge Hobbs’ performance against the Cardinals as anything other than a bad day. Pro Football Focus gave him a 47.9 grade for the game, in which he gave up four catches on five targets for 87 yards, missed two tackles and was flagged for holding.

For the season, Hobbs 59.6 overall grade from PFF ranks 57th out of 113 eligible cornerbacks.

With Hobbs having been one of the key free-agent additions during the offseason, having gotten a four-year, $48 million contract to leave the Las Vegas Raiders, that’s not the return on investment the Packers were looking for.

Nevertheless, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley delivered a strongly worded vote of confidence for Hobbs last Thursday, comparing him to some of the top-tier cornerbacks he’d coached during his earlier stops in college and the NFL (Darrelle Revis, Ronde Barber, Richard Sherman).

“I’ve been around some of the best corners, whether it was Revis or Ronde or Sherm,” Hafley said. “You have to have a short memory. I’m not going to lose confidence in a player; I’m just not going to do that. You’ve got to keep coaching those guys and you’ve got to keep talking to them and showing them how to improve, how to get better.

“They can’t lose confidence and we can’t lose confidence. That’s not part of who we are or what we’re going to do. So, we’ve got to keep coaching them. I’ve got confidence that he’ll keep getting better.

“He 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.”

Added head coach Matt LaFleur after the Cardinals game: “Are there some rough moments? I think that’s one of the beauties of this, especially playing that position. You have to be resilient in order to have success in this league, and that’s what I expect from him. He will bounce back.”

And then, on the eve of the matchup with the Steelers, the coaching staff informed Hobbs that Valentine would start in his place.

“One of the coaches told me they’d be going with him and was fine with that,” Hobbs said. “They just made a decision that they felt like they had to do.

“CV did a great job. They threw him in there and just played a great game. That’s how it goes. He was hot. So, as my teammate, I support him.”

Hobbs downplayed the idea that, after playing inside against slot receivers as a nickelback in Las Vegas, he is miscast as an outside cornerback opposite Keisean Nixon.

He also dismissed a question about whether a knee injury he suffered on July 31 that wiped out the remainder of his training camp and forced him to miss the regular-season opener against Detroit, was factoring into his play.

And, he insisted that the big-money free-agent contract isn’t causing him to put undue pressure on himself.

For the season, Hobbs has 19 tackles, one tackle for loss, one pass break-up and no interceptions. Opposing quarterbacks have completed 15 of 22 passes for 170 yards with two touchdowns (121.4 rating) according to Pro Football Reference.

What he did acknowledged is that his focus might not have been sufficiently sharp on some of the plays where opponents generated big plays.

“Just 100 percent of the snaps, be wired in and focused — like I am most of the snaps,” Hobbs said when asked what he needs to do differently. “Corner’s a position that if you give up 10 percent of catches that you’re on the field [for] and the other 90 percent you’re doing your job, you still can be considered not doing your job or not playing good.

“There’s a couple plays where dudes have gotten lucky or it’s been late into the play, this, that and the third. It’s elite focus [that’s required].”

Hobbs focus this week, meanwhile, is on practice, where he can show the coaching staff that even if he doesn’t merit regaining his full-time starting spot, he can at least contribute in some specific sub packages.

“I’m just going to come to practice every day, put my best foot forward on my own guy, keep my faith in God,” Hobbs said. “I’m just so blessed to be in this locker room and be a part of this team. Whether I’m out there, whether CV’s out there, I’m going to be grateful and bring my best 100 percent to game day.”

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