"Pre-draft picture" is a position-by-position look at the Packers' roster heading into the 2025 NFL Draft. The series continues with the defensive backs.
GREEN BAY – Secondary depth is on the menu for the Packers as the 2026 NFL Draft draws near.
Green Bay has three established veterans on the roster at both cornerback and safety but is looking for reinforcements after injuries mounted among the defensive backs last season.
Free-agent addition Benjamin St-Juste joins Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine at the cornerback while Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard lead the way at safety.
General Manager Brian Gutekunst feels good about the top of the depth chart at both positions but acknowledged the need to boost numbers, specifically at cornerback.
Buoying the cornerback room is the durable and dependable Nixon, who's now the Packers' third-longest tenured player behind quarterback Jordan Love and linebacker Isaiah McDuffie.
Nixon moved into the CB1 role last year and responded with a Pro Bowl season, starting all 17 contests, recording 72 tackles, a game-sealing interception against Chicago in Week 15 and a career-best 17 passes defensed.
Nixon played more than 1,000 defensive snaps for the second straight year while extending his consecutive games played streak to 79 (including playoffs).
Valentine started 11 games opposite Nixon after supplanting Nate Hobbs, who was released in March after playing just 11 games with five starts due to persistent knee injuries that eventually landed him on season-ending injured reserve.
A seventh-round pick in 2023, Valentine has started 30 of his 49 games for the Packers the past three seasons. To stay there, he'll have to hold back a challenge from St-Juste this summer.
Signed in March after a career year with the Los Angeles Chargers, St-Juste comes to Green Bay after being Pro Football Focus' highest-graded cornerback in zone coverage last year.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound cornerback shined on the perimeter in the Chargers' subpackages, recording 37 tackles, seven passes defensed and an interception in 16 games.
Meanwhile, the top three on Green Bay's back end is in place with Xavier McKinney remaining the leader of a young safety room that's gained immense experience the past two years.
While McKinney didn't match his eight-interception Packers debut in 2024, the 26-year-old safety earned a spot on the AP All-Pro team for the second straight year after notching 107 tackles, 10 passes defensed and two picks in 16 starts.
Williams battled through a late-season knee injury to post 100 tackles in 2025 while finishing with a team-high three INTs. The former fourth-round pick is the first Packer since 2000 to register at least 100 tackles, four interceptions and five tackles for a loss over his first two NFL seasons.
With Williams lined up most of the year next to McKinney, Bullard brought his brand of physicality to the slot while generating 83 tackles, three deflections and a forced fumble.
Although Bullard is now entrenched as Green Bay's starting nickel corner, one key area Green Bay must address this offseason is who will back up the former second-round pick following Hobbs' release in March.
Former sixth-round pick Kitan Oladapo began test-driving the slot last year while seeing his role grow on special teams. The 6-foot-2, 216-pounds safety's total snaps doubled from 133 in 2024 to 267 while Oladapo finished with 10 tackles (five on special teams).
Injuries forced Green Bay to dig deep into its depth last year after Hobbs, Zayne Anderson (ankle), Kamal Hadden (ankle) and Bo Melton (knee) all finished the season on injured reserve.
While Anderson signed with Miami this offseason and Hadden is in the midst of a long recovery, Melton is back to build on his successful conversion from receiver to cornerback last summer.
Also competing for a role are Shemar Bartholomew, Johnathan Baldwin and nickel corner Jaylin Simpson, all of whom finished last season on the active roster after receiving promotions from the practice squad.
As a defense, one area the Packers are looking to improve will be generating more turnovers under incoming coordinator Jonathan Gannon. Last season, Green Bay finished 26th in takeaways (14) and 28th in interceptions (seven).
Secondary reinforcements could help. The Packers tripled up on safeties in 2024 when they drafted Bullard, Williams and Oladapo but haven't taken a cornerback outside of the seventh round since drafting Eric Stokes in the first round and Shemar Jean-Charles in the fifth back in 2021.
Pre-draft picture series, previous installments
WRs/TEs: Confidently moving forward
