news-engine

It's TIme For The Keisean Nixon Conversation Let's talk this out. By Kalani Jones Alright Packers fans. Let’s lay it all out there. Let’s address the elephant in the room. Depending on who you ask, Keisean Nixon might be the worst player on the entire Packers roster, a good to average NFL cornerback, or anywhere in between. My job today is not to sway you, dear reader, towards any one side. Let’s lay the facts out there. Nixon’s football journey began in Compton, California. Raised by a single mother alongside his siblings, he competed in Snoop Dogg’s competitive youth football league. In high school at Bishop Mora Salesian High School, Nixon starred as a running back, cornerback, and as a track athlete, but missed his senior season of sports due to a broken collarbone. Because of this, he was an unrated football prospect coming out of high school, and had to attend Arizona Western College to play football. After shining there as a cornerback / returner, Nixon transferred to the University of South Carolina, again playing mostly defensive back and special teams, only earning a starting role in his final, senior season. In the NFL, Nixon signed with the Raiders on April 27th 2019, when that franchise was still based in Oakland. After two years with the team, they chose not to offer him a restricted free agent tender ahead of the 2022 year. He was therefore free to sign with the Packers on March 26th, 2022. That year, in Nixon’s second game on the active roster for Green Bay, he recorded seven tackles and one forced fumble in a week three victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was, however, on special teams that Nixon earned his place as a mainstay of the Packers roster. From week 6 of that season onwards, he returned 35 kickoffs for 1,009 yards, the only player that season to eclipse the thousand yard mark. His most famous moment of that season was the 105 yard kickoff return touchdown scored against the Vikings that kickstarted a 41-17 thrashing. He finished that season as a first team all-pro, which he repeated the next season. Alongside that repeat all-pro nod as a returner, 2023 was also the first year that Nixon became a consistent contributor on the defensive side of the ball as a slot defender. He logged 752 total snaps as a slot defender that year, with another 120 coming in a “box” role and only 60 as an outside cornerback. As a defender, he earned an overall defensive grade from PFF of 60.0 which is… exactly average. No, literally. PFF’s grading scale uses 60.0 as an “average NFL player” mark. That offseason, two very important things happened for Keisean Nixon. First, he signed a three year, $18 million extension with the Packers. It’s important to note that despite only costing ~$6 million a year for a starting slot cornerback, this was considered an overpay at the time. That’s how much the corner market has exploded in the course of only two years. At the time of signing, Keisean’s contract made him the third highest paid slot cornerback in the entire league. For context, Chicago’s Kyler Gordon signed a three year $40 million contract, averaging $13.33 million per year. This made his role on the team, and on the defense, going into 2024 extremely clear. Nixon was a cornerback first, and a kick returner second, a reality exacerbated by the second important thing to happen to Nixon that season. The NFL instituted their “dynamic” kickoff rule in the offseason of the 2024 year, and it caused an immediate, sharp drop in the number of actual kickoffs to take place. Even still acting as the team’s primary returner, the number of kickoffs he returned dropped sharply from 30 in 2023 to only 18. This would be the last year NIxon returned kickoffs for the Packers, declaring the day after the team’s playoff loss to the Eagles that he would be “focusing on being the team’s CB1”. A bold claim, but 2024 was also the season where Nixon made his move to outside corner. Injuries to others (namely Jaire Alexander), had forced the team’s hand, and to the surprise of many Nixon actually seemed to play better at outside corner than inside. This is backed up by a jump in PFF grade (from 60.0 overall to 64.1, along with rises in his coverage, tackling and run defense grades). If you don’t trust PFF (and that’s wise, always take PFF grades with a grain of salt), then I’d point out that Nixon also had a lower reception allowed &, a lower missed tackling rate, fewer total yards allowed, lower yards per reception allowed, more PBUs a lower passer rating when targeted, and three forced fumbles. 2024 was undoubtedly Nixon’s best year as a cornerback. This is also the point where I’d like to point out that no matter how you feel about Nixon the player right now, his personal journey in the NFL has been extremely impressive. From an undrafted free agent in 2019 fighting to make the roster at all, to an important special teams player. From there to an All-Pro kick returner with the Packers (something he was not signed to do, by the way) and part time slot cornerback. Then a full time slot cornerback playing at an average NFL level, while earning another All-Pro. Then from full time slot corner, makes a transition to outside cornerback, and plays even better.I digress, but it’s important to remember and celebrate the human side of things sometimes. Of course, 2025 was a pivot point for Nixon and his PR amongst the packer faithful. I will point out (again, we are only dealing with facts here) that his PFF grades rose once more last season. He finished with a 66.7 PFF grade, and once again higher marks in coverage, tackling, and run defense. He also saw a sharp decline in missed tackle rate, only 4.9%, lower receptions allowed %, and 13 PBUs. However other underlying metrics were not as kind to him. More penalties, more touchdowns allowed, a higher passer rating allowed, more yards and yards per reception, and zero forced fumbles. Of course, those numbers lack a bit of context. Nixon’s play was good when the Packers had Micah Parsons rushing the passer, and bad when he was not. Carrignton Valentine suffered a similar fate as well, and if we are being generous we should point out that the entire defense basically collapsed without Parsons out there. And that shouldn’t be too surprising right? Anytime you lose one of the best players in all of football, it’s going to hurt everyone else a lot. Especially when you consider how interconnected the pass rush and the pass coverage units are. And then when you take the devastating loss to the Bears in the playoffs, and you put this out there in the process… It’s not a great look. Now, an entire offseason later, we arrive at the current moment. The Packers have drafted their future cornerback in Brandon Cisse, signed a veteran free agent to compete with him and Valentine, and in the very first game back in the preseason showed off another play with a devastating lack of effort. For all that buildup, Nixon has not shown off why he would be able to keep his starting job as the Packers outside CB. Of course, there are a couple of factors at play here. First up is the contract. He’s still on that contract he signed in 2024, now in the final year. I mentioned the cornerback market exploding, and that’s because Nixon is now only the 42nd highest paid CB in the league, although still the highest paid on the Packers squad, surprising as that may seem but everyone else is still on rookie contracts! The only other vet, Benjamin St-Juste, is only getting $5 million a year, 1 less than Nixon himself. As far as getting someone to play NFL average cornerback reps (however consistent or inconsistent they be), you just aren’t going to be finding them for much cheaper than what the Packers already have Nixon on the books for. Next up is the depth surrounding the player at CB. There’s not much, and that old culprit injuries are at fault again. Carrington Valentine has missed the majority of training camp, as has rookie Domani Jackson. Further down the depth chart, the play from some of the fringe guys has been pretty hot and cold. You’d probably feel okay heading into a game if you had Cisse, St-Juste and Nixon all available, but if one of them goes down I’d definitely start to sweat. Not to mention Nixon’s old spot over in the slot has also seen its fair share of injuries. Javon Bullard is dealing with a bone bruise, and says he should be able to play in week one, but I’d argue that Nixon should probably be the team’s plan for backup at slot, especially if he loses on the starting outside cornerback battle. A swing secondary player who can play everywhere is pretty valuable in the NFL. But for a player who couldn’t perform without Micah Parsons at the end of 2025, can we trust him without Micah Parsons to begin 2026? Does Nixon have trade value? Probably, yes. But the question is where that value really lies, and whether it’s worth giving up that depth. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations like the Packers, it’s probably just not worth it, unless you can get another cornerback exchanged in the deal. All this means a release is probably unlikely as well. The Packers lack of significant CB investment in the draft has tied their hands to keeping Nixon through this season, for better or worse, and then parting ways in the free agency period. I’m personally cheering for Nixon, because his success is the Packers’ success, but after his performance in the Steelers preseason game, reports of uneven play in training camp, and then just today, comments to the media about finding himself in a position battle that are less than inspiring. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHEESEHEAD NATION WEEKLY NEWSLETTER HERE. __________________________ Co-Owner of the thirteen time world champion Green Bay Packers. Sometimes I write about them. Follow me on Twitter at https://x.com/kjones_in_co and on Substack for film breakdowns! __________________________