The time has arrived on the NFL calendar when everything is sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. Just listen to the coaches … Everyone looks great! Everyone’s ahead of schedule! Everyone’s exceeding expectations! But we need to talk about the cornerback position.
It’s become axiomatic in modern professional football that all things being equal, the offense starts with an advantage over the defense, slight though it might be. It’s like a casino’s edge at the roulette wheel: the seemingly trivial addition of double zero gives the house a small leg up, and over thousands of spins that adds to up to real money.
An offense’s advantage derives from two things: First, it knows what the play is, and second, it can manipulate numbers in one portion of the field. Flooding a zone with receivers, or moving the O-line in a direction, forces the defense to respond, leaving other parts of the field under-manned. Play action, RPO and other pre-snap motion serve this purpose as well.
Defenses respond, of course, with moves and subterfuge of their own, and it’s a constant chess match, because it’s virtually impossible to have everything covered at once. Over time, certain schemes gain favor and others fade. But in the largest sense, the universe for defenses splits into two overarching approaches:
A) Minimize numerical disadvantages — and explosive plays — by playing back and keeping everything happen in front of you. The theory is that by forcing the offense to move in small chunks, long sustained drives are required, during which there are more opportunities for stops or turnovers. We’ll call this Joe Barry World.
B) Exert max pressure on the quarterback, thus reducing his time and ability to move the ball through the air. Forcing offenses to be more one-dimensional, this theory goes, swings the advantage to the defense. This is Jeff Hafley World.
Lots of variants exist in each. Some teams blitz relentlessly, while others rely on the defensive front for QB pressure, for example. Or a hybrid of the two. In Hafley World, according to the man himself, pressure will come from all over the place … linebackers, safeties, edge and interior linemen, depending on the defensive play call. It’s a refreshingly aggressive posture, and the draft certainly aligned with this idea. Brian Gutekunst chose three safeties and two linebackers known for their rush prowess as much or more than their skills in coverage or run-stopping.
The logic is compelling. Backfield disruption means the QB has to get rid of the ball more quickly, which reduces the threat and success rate of deeper pass plays that require more time to develop. Bring enough pressure and you also force the defense to keep a running back or tight end in to help with protection, removing a receiving weapon from the equation.
In theory, this should take pressure off the outside corners, which helps explain the Packers leaving the position virtually untouched during the off-season. Sure, Green Bay has two first-round selections at the position in Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes, but neither has been consistently healthy. In Stokes’ case, he flashed for a few games in his rookie season but has been mediocre on the rare occasions he has played since. Beyond them is Carrington Valentine, a seventh rounder in last year’s draft, and Corey Ballantine, a free agent signed to the practice squad in 2022.
Valentine, forced into service last season, garnered a less-than-stellar PFF grade of 57.5. He was targeted 61 times and allowed 35 receptions.
Bottom line, there is little depth beyond two players with injury history, which is why many of us were clamoring for a corner in the early rounds of the draft. Gutekunst waited until his very last pick, and the third-to-last in the entire draft, to nab Kaylen King of Penn State. King is an interesting case, having played so well in 2022 that he was considered a borderline first rounder at the time. Instead he imploded in 2023 and nearly fell out of the draft entirely.
The reality is that while something always have to give, having solid corners is a necessity no matter what scheme you play on defense. Offenses and their QBs have means of getting good receivers open and getting them the ball, even if the number of opportunities for those kinds of plays is minimized somewhat. Just look at how badly Detroit, Minnesota and Philadelphia suffered from poor CB play last year, and how they went hard in the off-season to address the problem.
Perhaps Gutekunst is hoping for someone he likes to come available when roster cuts begin. And Hafley’s reputation as a DB whisperer is encouraging; maybe he can get King back on track. Or maybe the soft-tissue guru Green Bay hired can help resurrect Stokes’ career. Something needs to happen. GPG.
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Jonathan Krim grew up in New York but got hooked on the Packers — and on hating the Cowboys — watching the Ice Bowl as a young child. He blames bouts of unhappiness in his late teens on Dan Devine. A journalist for several decades who now lives in California, he enjoys trafficking in obscure cultural references, lame dad jokes and occasionally preposterous takes. Jonathan is a Packers shareholder, and insists on kraut with his brats. You can follow Jonathan on twitter at @Jkrim.
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