With only a seventh-round pick spent on the position, Green Bay appears to be running it back at cornerback in 2024.
Many Green Bay Packers fans expected the team’s first-round selection to be turned in for Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean when he was still available at the 25th overall pick on Thursday. The Packers had other plans, though, as they waited nine draft choices before finally selecting a player at the position: Penn State’s Kalen King, who was taken 255th overall.
When asked about the lack of activity at the cornerback position in the draft, head coach Matt LaFleur stated, “First of all, we have a lot of confidence in those guys, anyways,” and later added that former first-round pick Eric Stokes “looks great” in organized team activities. LaFleur said that Stokes was a “full-go” in the Packers’ offseason program and that Jaire Alexander is “in great shape. He’s been busting his butt.”
When general manager Brian Gutekunst was asked to comment on the unit, he said, “I like our group.”
This shouldn’t be that surprising, considering the Packers went out of their way to re-sign three of their own this offseason: Corey Ballentine, Robert Rochell and Keisean Nixon. Nixon, importantly, signed a two-year, $13 million deal this offseason after testing free agency. That deal makes him one of the highest-paid slot defenders in the history of the NFL.
At this point, you can go ahead and assume that Nixon will be the full-time starter in the slot, Alexander will start at one of the outside positions and some combination of Stokes and/or second-year player Carrington Vallentine, who Gutekunst previously said played “exceptionally well” in 2023, battling for the other outside cornerback spot. King probably fits in with Ballentine and Rochell in 2024, a group of cornerbacks who are fighting for roster spots as backup cornerbacks and special teams contributors.
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