GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers signed cornerback Nate Hobbs to a four-year, $48 million contract in March with $16 million fully guaranteed, according to Over The Cap. Now, Hobbs, one of only two marquee free-agent signings by the team last offseason, along with left guard Aaron Banks, is watching his team from the bench.

Hobbs underwent surgery early in training camp to repair a torn MCL and missed the Packers’ Week 1 win over the Detroit Lions while rehabbing. He played 46.4 percent of the defensive snaps in Week 2 before playing 72.7 and 66.7 percent in Weeks 3 and 4, respectively, as he eased back into a full workload. Hobbs then played every defensive snap against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6 and the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7.

Against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8, after underwhelming performances by Hobbs, there was no split between him and cornerback Carrington Valentine. Hobbs played only four of 63 defensive snaps while Valentine, a 2023 seventh-round pick with 20 career starts entering last Sunday night, played all but one defensive snap.

“C.V. did a great job,” Hobbs said on Wednesday. “Next-man-up mentality. 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.”

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Monday that it remains an open competition for cornerback snaps. That battle includes all three of Keisean Nixon, Hobbs and Valentine. LaFleur also said the team still has “a ton of confidence” in Hobbs.

“Not exactly what I wanted,” Hobbs said when asked to evaluate his play this season. “But when you play corner, it boils down to a couple plays. I have a lot of snaps where I played really good, you know what I’m saying? Really good snaps, really good plays. You take two, three plays here and there, but that’s just the life of a corner. That’s why I signed up for it.”

Nate Hobbs spoke for about 10 minutes today about being benched. Story coming later, but he said of what he needs to do better:

“Just 100% of the snaps, be wired in and focused like I am most of the snaps.” pic.twitter.com/PZmoXrYdJf

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) October 29, 2025

Hobbs said he needs to be fully focused for 100 percent of his snaps. Cornerback is a position, he added, at which you’re seen as not doing your job if you play well 90 percent of the time and allow catches the other 10 percent.

“If I’m being honest, there’s a couple plays where dudes have gotten lucky or it’s been late into the play, this, that and the third,” Hobbs said.

The Packers paid Hobbs outside cornerback money, but he had primarily been a nickel cornerback with the Las Vegas Raiders, who selected Hobbs in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. Still, he rejected the idea that his perimeter struggles have to do with his natural position being elsewhere.

“No,” Hobbs said when asked if he expected an adjustment period playing outside. “I feel like that’s what I’m built for. I think I feel like that’s what my athleticism and my mind and everything that I’ve been through and my body type and the things that God’s blessed me with, I think that’s what I’m built for.”

Hobbs was also asked if a potential lingering knee issue has factored into his play.

“Nah, I’m not gonna say that,” he said.

While Hobbs could very well earn his full-time spot in the starting lineup back or even earn a share of snaps at outside cornerback or inside at nickel, Valentine didn’t give the Packers much reason to bench him with how he played in Pittsburgh.

“I thought he played really competitively the entire game,” LaFleur said of Valentine. “Even on the touchdown catch (by wideout Roman Wilson on Valentine in garbage time), I just loved how he competed for the football. I thought that was big time, and it didn’t go our way in that moment, but I thought all in all, he showed physicality. He was challenging guys. There was just no gimmies, and I thought that was big time because that’s how we want to play.”

Has Hobbs’ price tag added pressure to perform at a different level, one which he hasn’t met, and have the expectations of living up to that contract made the benching tougher for him to stomach?

“It’s only pressure if you make it pressure,” Hobbs said. “The pressure’s all in your head. It was pressure when I was out there playing for $600,000, you know what I’m saying? It was pressure when I was a second-year guy and they had me outside and then inside. They didn’t know if I could do it, and I did it better than really anybody in the league. So that was pressure. It’s nothing new. It’s just playing football.”

The Packers are trying to win a Super Bowl right now, and benching a guy they guaranteed $16 million speaks to that focus. The decision to do so before the halfway point of the season qualifies as the type of urgency Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst demanded at the end of last season.

This decision is hardly permanent, though, and the Packers could have a different plan in the secondary come Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field. If anything, Hobbs doesn’t sound like he’ll pout as he tries again to prove he’s worth all that money the Packers gave him.

“I’m just going to come to practice every day … keep my faith in the work that I’ve put in and whatever we come out with on Sunday is what we come out with on Sunday,” Hobbs said. “But regardless of that, I’m going to be happy. I’m just so blessed to be in this locker room and be a part of this team. Whether I’m out there, whether C.V.’s out there, I’m going to be grateful and bring my best 100 percent to game day.”