GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers conducted an extreme makeover on their cornerback corps this offseason.
So far, the results headed into Sunday night’s game at Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers have been … curious.
Having grown weary of Jaire Alexander’s injury problems, the Packers released the former All-Pro. They also chose not to re-sign former first-round pick Eric Stokes and veteran backups Robert Rochell and Corey Ballentine.
In their place, they handed Nate Hobbs a four-year, $48 million contract in free agency.
Hobbs has struggled. He suffered a knee injury early in training camp and opted for surgery in hopes of being ready for Week 1. He didn’t quite hit that timeline, but has started each of the last five games.
After a strong start, Hobbs has faltered. According to Pro Football Focus, 101 cornerbacks have played at least 100 coverage snaps. Hobbs ranks 57th in completion percentage allowed (65.0 percent), 74th with 13.8 yards per catch and 89th in passer rating (127.1).
Meanwhile, one of the former Packers cornerbacks is having an outstanding season.
And, no, it’s not Alexander.
Alexander has played in only two of the Ravens’ six games. He hasn’t started and didn’t even play in the loss against the Rams before the bye.
In limited snaps, Alexander has been targeted five times and gave up five catches for 116 yards.
The surprise standout has been Stokes, who signed a one-year contract with Hobbs’ old team, the Las Vegas Raiders, in free agency. Of those aforementioned 101 corners to play at least 100 coverage snaps, Stokes ranks 16th with a 52.6 percent completion rate and 21st in passer rating (72.9).
Incredibly, he is No. 1 in terms of snaps played per catch allowed, his 22.4 snaps per reception ranking ahead of the likes of Sauce Gardner (second, 20.9) and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain (10th, 16.6).
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley gave Hobbs a vote of confidence on Thursday.
“I think Nate’s had a really good week of practice,” Hafley said. “I’ve been around some of the best corners, whether it was (Darrelle) Revis or Ronde (Barber) or Sherm (Richard Sherman). I just talked about Sherm on a third-and-20 getting called for a hold, which cost us a free play and they go onto win the game.
“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.”
The Packers made far too big an investment to toss Hobbs aside after a handful of games. Besides, he played well to start the season. In his first two games against Washington and Cleveland, PFF charged Hobbs with one catch out of four targets for 7 yards.
The Packers need him to bounce back to that level after he gave up a couple touchdowns at Dallas and 87 receiving yards last week at Arizona – including the first 40-yard completion since Alexander against the Eagles in Week 1 of last season.
“They can’t lose confidence and we can’t lose confidence,” Hafley said. “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.”
That would be huge on Sunday night against Rodgers and D.K. Metcalf, who is one of the top receivers in the league because of his combination of size and speed. The Packers love Hobbs’ physicality, though he missed two tackles last week, including on tight end Trey McBride’s second touchdown.
On Monday, coach Matt LaFleur spoke confidently that Hobbs would rebound and dismissed the idea of giving Carrington Valentine a bigger role.
“Here’s what I’ll tell you about Nate,” LaFleur said. “Nate’s a competitive dude that takes a lot of pride in his work. He loves ball and I think he will rebound and, in the end, he’ll be better for it.
“So, yeah, are there some rough moments? I think that’s one of the beauties of this, especially playing that position, you better be resilient in this league because there’s going to be times when you’re going to get beat. There’s some good players on the other side. They did a nice job on some of those situations. But 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.”
