Don’t Forget About Carrington Valentine in the Battle for the Packers Starting Cornerback Job

While Eric Stokes has looked fast at Green Bay Packers OTAs, fans should not forget that Stokes doesn’t have the starting corner spot opposite Jaire Alexander wrapped up just yet. He is in a battle with Carrington Valentine who surprised a lot of people with his strong play as a rookie a year ago.

GM Brian Gutekunst selected Valentine in the seventh round of the 2023 NFL Draft with the 232^nd overall pick. Valentine got himself noticed right away.

During training camp, head coach Matt LaFleur spoke highly of his rookie cornerback. “He’s extremely athletic, has made those splash plays,” LaFleur told reporters. “I love how he competes. He goes out there and challenges it. You can coach him hard [and] he’s receptive to the coaching. I think we have a good young player right there…I think he’s got a great attitude…I think this kid is very, very talented, and he has to continue to build on his early success.

Valentine did just that. The early success continued into the preseason. In his first preseason contest, Valentine made four tackles and intercepted a pass. It was a big moment for the former Kentucky star as the game was being played in Cincinnati, the closest NFL stadium to his college campus.

Once the regular season started, Valentine continued to exceed expectations. Not only did Valentine make the team, but he was also starting by Week 3 due in part to injuries to Stokes and Alexander.

For the season, Valentine played in all 17 games for the Pack and started 12 of them. He made 44 total tackles and broke up nine passes. He also recovered one fumble against the Giants and returned it for 50 yards. Valentine also started both playoff games for the Packers.

For his rookie season, Valentine showed promise. According to pro-football-reference.com, opposing quarterbacks completed 57.6 percent of their passes when throwing to receivers covered by Valentine and had a quarterback rating of 84.8.

Valentine’s strengths included his physicality. At times, he was a little too physical and took some penalties as a result. To get to the next level, he will have to learn exactly where he can draw the line when making contact with opposing receivers.

Heading into this year’s NFL Draft, many experts thought the Packers would add a cornerback, possibly even in the early rounds. But before the draft, Gutekunst spoke about how he felt about the cornerbacks already on the roster and mentioned Valentine in particular.

“I think he showed last year that he was [capable of starting],” Gutekunst said. “He played very consistent football for us, and I think his best football is ahead of him, like a lot of our guys. He needs to get a little bit stronger, and I think he will. But I think the positions we put him in this past season, he answered the bell quite a bit throughout. Some of those were on short notice. And to come in and compete like he did, you don’t see that a lot out of seventh-round players. He had a lot of belief in himself and when the opportunities came, he certainly capitalized on them.”

Gutekunst surprised many people when he didn’t select a cornerback until the seventh round of this year’s draft.

After the draft, Gutekunst again expressed his confidence in the talent at cornerback and Valentine’s potential. “Obviously, Valentine played exceptionally well last year for us, and Eric [Stokes] looks very good right now,” Gutekunst said. “We brought back Corey Ballentine, who played some really good football for us. So, I like our depth there. I feel pretty good about it. We wouldn’t have shied away from adding if it would’ve felt that way, but it just didn’t. At the same time, I didn’t feel an overwhelming need to be aggressive toward that position because I really like the guys in that room.”

That means that Stokes and Valentine will be battling for the starting position on the perimeter opposite Alexander. Don’t bet against Valentine putting up a good fight for the starting job or even winning it. All he’s done so far since joining the Packers has been going out and proving skeptics wrong.