GREEN BAY – Don’t call it a competition. Unless you’re discussing the Green Bay Packers cornerback rotation in camp with coach Matt LaFleur, or top secondary coach Bobby Babich. They haven’t shied from that label recently.
Keisean Nixon, the epicenter of this competition – if, of course, that’s what to call it – feels his sudden re-introduction to second-team reps is something different.
“I guess I’m being punished right now,” Nixon said. “I guess. I don’t know. I don’t really worry about what I’m running in camp, the ones and twos. I just keep my process and compete.”
There’s that word again. Compete.
It’s something Nixon wasn’t supposed to need in this camp, at least not to win a starting job. Nineteen months ago, Nixon raised some eyebrows saying he wanted to be a No. 1 corner. He never quite reached that height last season, even if he was a replacement for Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon at the Pro Bowl. Mostly because Nixon did not do what’s required from a No. 1 corner, either shut down his side of the field or take away the football if a quarterback dared.
Nixon had the most important interception of the Packers’ season, against Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in the Lambeau Field end zone to secure a Week 14 win, but it was his only pick all year.
He still established himself as legitimate starting corner. Or at least he seemed to. Nixon give up some plays, same with most players at maybe the defense’s most-difficult position, but he made plenty of plays, too. His 17 defended passes were in a four-way tie for sixth in the NFL with Philadelphia’s Quinyon Mitchell, Houston’s Kamari Lassiter and New Orleans’ Kool-Aid McKinstry. They are also legitimate starting corners.
It was enough production to think Nixon could springboard into this camp as an assumed starter in the Packers defense. Only he’s splitting first-team reps now, and Babich is openly calling the cornerback depth chart a competition. No matter the description, Nixon’s fluctuation is the most-unexpected thing to transpire in this camp.
Nixon isn’t about to back down from a fight.
“I don’t view myself in no competition,” Nixon said. “I’m coming in here to compete for myself. What they do, and what they choose to do, that’s out of my control. I can only control what I can control. No, I came from the bottom, so I’m here. I’m Year 8. Since I’ve been here, I ain’t been off the field, and anything they’ve asked me to do I’ve played at a high level.
“Whether it was acclimated, anything. However it came with it, I showed up. I always show up.”
Nixon will need to keep showing up, because there are a couple of corners who appear to be hot on his heels. If the season started this Sunday, instead of next month in Minnesota, rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse might be the most-likely projection for a starting spot. The second-round draft pick this spring was inserted into the starting defense when Carrington Valentine injured his hamstring early in camp, and he’s been tested. But Cisse never has flinched.
Cisse showed that unbreakable mettle in practice Aug. 16. From the start, quarterback Jordan Love picked on the rookie. He connected with Matthew Golden on a deep stop route for about 20 yards against Cisse on the first rep. A few snaps later, Love induced a free play when the Packers defense jumped offside. He chucked a deep ball down the left sideline to Bo Melton, who turned to play the football for a 30-yard catch as Cisse appeared to lose track of it.
“They did some very good things against the scheme, against some scheme beaters,” Cisse said, “and he’s going to make some bang-bang plays and make some great throws that wow you. But that’s the part of playing corner. You’ve got to kind of have a next-play mentality when you give up a play, and the ball is coming back at you, make them pay.
“That’s just kind of how I like to think about it, just stay even-keeled, level-headed through every up and down. I know when the ball comes my way again, I’ve got a chance to make a play on it at any given time.”
Once Love decided to target the rookie, he didn’t stop. Cisse eventually got his chance late in practice, continually covering the quarterback’s top targets. On a second-and-10, Love threw an out route to Christian Watson, but his pass was slightly behind and Cisse broke it up for an incompletion. On the next snap, Love tried to connect with Jayden Reed on a deeper out route. Cisse stuck to Reed when he broke his route, undercut the receiver near the sideline, and intercepted Love.
It was textbook positioning in man coverage that made the play possible, but also an impressive recovery for a rookie who took some lumps earlier in practice.
“In man coverage right there,” Cisse said, “all the stress is on the backside corner. We kind of pushing everybody away, so you know the ball is coming toward you because that’s where all the stress is. It’s a one-on-one matchup there, and we’re playing kind of zone away from it. So just trying to be locked in on the technique, playing with good eyes, and just try to go make a play.”
The Packers entered camp desperately trying to identify a second starting corner, presumably to pair with Nixon. The true test for Cisse won’t come until the regular season, but his emergence has to be a breath of fresh air for new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. What’s more surprising, and where the corner competition really gets heated, has been veteran Benjamin St-Juste’s introduction to camp.
St-Juste might currently project as the more likely third cornerback, but he began rotating into the first-team defense a week ago. After intercepting backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor for a pick-6 early in camp, St-Juste has continued to stay reliable. He’s rarely been beaten, consistently finding himself in the right position, and has shown a willingness to use his 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame to be physical against the run.
In the Packers preseason opener at Pittsburgh, St-Juste had maybe the defense’s most-impressive hustle play to prevent a touchdown. St-Juste was 5 yards behind Steelers receiver Kaden Wetzen on a third-and-10 crossing route, but the veteran chased him down short of the goal line at the end of a 74-yard catch. The Steelers scored two plays later, but those kind of plays get noticed on film.
“That’s like the basics of defensive player,” St-Juste said. “If you don’t have that, it’s going to be very hard for you to play in this defense. The basics of our defense is play style, violence and motor. So if you’re not violent, if you don’t run to the ball, if you don’t make these plays that just require effort – that doesn’t require any skill. If you don’t make that, you’re probably not going to play in this defense. So I just try to make sure I’m always on top of that, and that’s what I bring to the table.
“For me, that’s the basic. That’s just how I am as a football player. That’s my DNA. I don’t want to be the guy on the tape that they say, ‘Hey, why aren’t you running to the ball?’”
Juxtapose that play against Nixon’s missed tackle earlier in the game against Steelers receiver Germie Bernard, allowing 25 yards on what should have been a short gain. Or his “business decision” in last year’s playoffs, not hitting Bears running back D’Andre Swift at the goal line. Those are the kind of moments that can overshadow all the plays Nixon made last season.
They also help illuminate why the Packers might be tinkering with competition at starting cornerback.
“I don’t see myself competing with nobody,” Nixon said. “I’m competing with myself at the end of the day. However they want to put it in the media of competition and all that, that’s out of my control. We’ll just see Week 1 what happens. I’m here to play ball though.
“It’s hard to take me off the field. I do a lot. However that goes is how it goes.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers’ Keisean Nixon believes he’s being ‘punished’ with 2nd-team reps
Reporting by Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
