Packers CB Keisean Nixon Battling To Keep Starting Job

“I guess I’m being punished right now, I guess, I don’t know,” Nixon said Sunday (via Demovsky). “I don’t really worry about what I’m running in camp, ones or twos. I just keep my process and just compete — for real.”

Head coach Matt LaFleur responded to Nixon’s comments on Tuesday, saying (via Ryan Wood of USA Today): “He loves making a headline, doesn’t he? The way I look at it is this: I guess our whole team is being punished, because everybody is in competition.”

While Nixon has taken some second- and third-team snaps this summer, the Packers still list him as a starter on their unofficial depth chart. Benjamin St-Juste, whom the Packers brought in on a two-year, $10MM deal in free agency, is behind Nixon. Carrington Valentine, who has made 30 starts in his three-year career, and second-round rookie Brandon Cisse are battling for the other first-string spot.

This is a high-stakes season for Nixon, who is in the last year of his contract and can ill afford a demotion as he nears free agency. Nixon is set to finish up a three-year, $18MM pact, a deal that has worked out well for the Packers. He had two first-team All-Pro nods as a kick returner on his resume when he re-signed in 2024, but his special teams duties have diminished as his importance to the Packers’ defense has increased.

In 2025, Nixon’s first 17-start season, he did not return a single kick. Defensively, he played over 90% of snaps for the second year in a row. Nixon made 72 tackles, racked up the league’s sixth-most pass deflections (17) and pulled in an interception, though he was last among defensive backs in penalties (13, per Demovsky). He also gave up a 64.4% completion rate and an inflated 105.1 passer rating on 87 targets as the nearest defender. Despite the blemishes, Pro Football Focus ranked Nixon’s performance a comfortably above-average 37th among 112 qualified corners.

Nixon, Valentine and St-Juste each spent some time working with the second-string defense in practice on Tuesday, according to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. Cisse was their lone corner to practice exclusively with the first team. He could emerge as the Packers’ No. 1 corner eventually, but Nixon is fighting to retain the title in 2026.