Packers Sign One of Snoop Dogg’s Former Players
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have signed cornerback Keisean Nixon, a source said on Friday night.
Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus was the first to report the transaction.
An undrafted free agent out of South Carolina in 2019, Nixon played in 40 games with two starts in three seasons with the Raiders. He’s got one pass defensed on his professional resume. Pro Football Focus charged him with 19 completions in 24 targets (79.2 percent) in three seasons.
Most of his action on defense has come in the slot. The Packers need competition there after Chandon Sullivan, with 20 starts the past two seasons, signed with the Vikings. Beyond the top-flight projected starting three of Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas and Eric Stokes, the only corner with any experience is 2021 fifth-round pick Shemar Jean-Charles, who played 37 defensive snaps as a rookie.
Nixon also could help on special teams. New Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia knows him well. Nixon had a team-high nine tackles on special teams as a rookie and nine more the past two seasons.
A junior-college transfer, Nixon intercepted two passes as a junior and tied for the team lead with nine passes defensed as a senior.
At South Carolina’s pro day before the 2019 draft, he measured 5-foot-10 1/4, ran his 40 in 4.42 seconds and posted a 32.5-inch vertical jump.
A native of Compton, Calif., he played for rapper Snoop Dogg in the Snoop Youth Football League. Snoop gave Nixon a shoutout following a pick-six his junior season.
“The SYFL was all the inner-city kids that were athletes. … No matter their backgrounds. No matter what type of money they come from,” Nixon told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “Snoop made sure every kid could play. It was cheap for kids to play, so it was athletes everywhere.”
He added: “When I think back on it, the SYFL really bred me to be who I am today. It made you a man. … It taught you how to be tough. Everybody really came from nothing.”
Nixon is the nephew of the legendary rapper.
“He talks to me every week. He’s famous to y’all. He’s not famous to me,” Nixon told Raiders.com.
Nixon wasn’t the only one of Snoop’s players to make it to the NFL.
“Since I was little, grew up playing against top dudes like JuJu Smith [Schuster], John Ross," Nixon said. “Growing up playing against dudes like that, so the competition level has always been there.”
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