Packers CB Brandon Cisse: No. 1 Draft Pick Is No. 24 Player in 2026

Packers On SI is counting down the Green Bay Packers’ top 25 players for the 2026 season. This series continues with our No. 24 player, Brandon Cisse.

The Green Bay Packers were let down by lackluster cornerback play throughout last season. In 17 games, they gave up too many key plays and didn’t make enough big plays.

This offseason, general manager Brian Gutekunst attacked the position with vengeance, highlighted by using his first draft pick on cornerback Brandon Cisse. As a second-round pick, he was the team’s top draft pick. Will he quickly become one of their top cornerbacks?

Why Brandon Cisse Is So Important

A second-round draft pick, obviously, is not a first-round draft pick, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t high expectations for Cisse. At 5-foot-11 3/4, he’s got good size. With 4.41 speed in the 40 and a 41-inch, he’s got superb athleticism. He is, by far, the team’s most talented cornerback.

Brandon Cisse was drafted in round 2 with pick 52 in the 2026 draft class. He scored a 9.24 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 234 out of 3075 CB from 1987 to 2026.https://t.co/TrHUJsN2It pic.twitter.com/Lfzl7Q10p7
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 25, 2026

With few exceptions, great teams have great quarterbacks, great receivers or both. Therefore, it stands to reason that a championship defense must have cornerbacks capable of putting the brakes on those high-profile passing attacks.

The Packers’ returning starting duo of Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine isn’t good enough. Neither is remotely close to being considered a defensive stopper. Maybe Cisse will step up and be that player capable of limiting Justin Jefferson in Week 1 and Jaxon Smith-Njigba in a potential NFC Championship Game.

Brandon Cisse’s Strengths and Weaknesses

With his size and athleticism, Cisse was excellent in coverage at North Carolina State in 2024 and South Carolina in 2025. According to Sports Info Solutions, Cisse allowed a catch rate of 43 percent in 2024 and 41 percent in 2025. He allowed just one touchdown in each of those seasons.

The question mark is his playmaking ability. Cisse had one interception off the bench in 2023, zero in 2024 and one in 2025.

“I thought he had good ball skills,” assistant director of pro scouting Mike Owen said at the draft. “When you go to practice, you pay attention to that stuff, see how they catch it. When you see the game clips, he attacks the football. He’s aggressive with his hand combat, jarring the ball loose.

“Picks is picks but, at the end of the day, at that catch point, if you can get the ball out and make sure the receiver don’t get a completion, that’s what you want.”

Interceptions were a major problem for the Packers last season. They finished the regular season with seven, with Nixon collecting the only one by a cornerback. Can a player who didn’t make a lot of plays in college help a defense that didn’t make a lot of plays last season?

“That’s fair,” his position coach at South Carolina, Torrian Gray, told Packers On SI. “The only thing that I can go off of is that he made some picks in practice that made me just like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know he had that part.’ So, he does have the ability to turn over the ball.

“I guess the production as far as his college career is not going to say that, but he does have the ability to turn over the ball and, hopefully, he’ll be able to show him improve that part of his game on your guys’ level for Green Bay.”

What Happens If Brandon Cisse Gets Hurt

If there really is strength in numbers, the Packers are Hercules at cornerback. Not only are Nixon and Valentine back from last season, but they signed Benjamin St-Juste in free agency and drafted Domani Jackson in the sixth round.

The Packers can go out and play a game – heck, they can play a season – with the cornerbacks they have. But can they play winning football in January without Cisse playing a big role?

Why We Ranked Brandon Cisse Here

This was a split-the-difference sort of ranking. If Cisse is starting in Week 1, for instance, he’d be placed a lot higher on any sort of start-of-the-season rankings. But Nixon and Valentine are established starters and there are high hopes for St-Juste, who was excellent with the Chargers last season.

Chances are, Cisse will start at some point this season. For the good of the defense – for the good of the team – that almost has to happen. But whether that’s Week 1, Week 5 or Week 10 is anyone’s guess.

“It’s going good so far. Just taking it one day at a time but it’s been really good so far. It’s exciting,” he said last week.

“There’s obviously a learning curve, there’s always a jump, there’s always a different kind of game. The program’s a lot different from college from splits and the hashmarks are a lot different to the way the field is set up. But it’s been great. It’s gone better than I thought it would but, obviously, every day you still have to get better.”

Top 25 Packers for 2026

No. 25: QB Tyrod Taylor

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

Add us as a preferred source on Google