Packers Make Big Move – Pun Intended – By Signing Benjamin St-Juste

The Green Bay Packers made their first big move in free agency on Tuesday by agreeing to a two-year contract with cornerback Benjamin St-Juste, according to NFL Network.

Pun intended on it being a “big” signing.

The Packers have a smallish set of cornerbacks. Of Green Bay’s main three from last season, Carrington Valentine is the tallest at 5-foot-11 5/8.

Enter St-Juste, who measured 6-foot-3 1/4 at the Scouting Combine in 2021.

Benjamin St-Juste was drafted with pick 74 of round 3 in the 2021 draft class. He scored a 8.13 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 336 out of 1790 CB from 1987 to 2021. https://t.co/9dc9mjGCBS #RAS #WFT pic.twitter.com/dkiSgDyu2y
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) May 1, 2021

St-Juste had been a logical target all along as an experienced, quality cornerback who wasn’t expected to get a budget-busting contract. Indeed, the two-year, $10 million contract is considerably less than the four-year, $48 million contract given to Nate Hobbs in free agency last year.

“We had some injuries there,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “Obviously, Hobbs was missed for most of the season, never really got going. I thought Carrington stepped in and did a great job. He’s a young player who’s still getting better.

“Keisean had a very, very good year. I think he was in the top three in PBUs and did some really good things. Do we need wholesale changes? No. I do think it’s an area (where) those guys can get hurt. They’re the smaller guys on the field. We ask a lot of those guys in run support. The depth there, for me, is important that we have answers.”

St-Juste Brings Plenty of Experience

A third-round pick by Washington in 2021, he started 42 games during the 2022 through 2024 seasons with the Commanders. In 2022, when he broke into the starting lineup, Pro Football Focus charged him with a 53.8 completion percentage. In 2023, he had one interception and finished among the league leaders with 17 passes defensed but was charged with a 68.0 percent catch rate.

In 2024, he played in 17 games with 14 starts and had one interception, seven passes defensed and allowed a catch rate of 63.6 percent.

Last offseason, he signed a one-year contract with the Chargers, where he was reunited with his former Michigan coach, Jim Harbaugh, and hoped for a bounce-back season.

“I feel like I was making some good strides over the years. Last year was tough,” St-Juste said upon signing with the Chargers. "The reason why? I don't know, I guess that's just how it is as a professional athlete, you got some ups and downs.

“My goal for this offseason was to pinpoint what went right, what went wrong and make sure that those mistakes don't get re-created here. That's why I'm very optimistic for this season.”

In a limited role – he played only 37 percent of the defensive snaps – he had one interception and seven passes defensed in 16 games (two starts). PFF charged him with a catch rate of just 47.5 percent.

St-Juste will turn 29 right about the time the season begins. In five seasons, he has two interceptions and allowed 14 touchdowns, according to PFF.

At his size, you’d expect him to be primarily a perimeter cornerback, which has been the case. However, in 2023 with Washington, he played 602 snaps at cornerback and 332 snaps in the slot.

St-Juste is a native of Montreal. He opened his college career at Michigan and finished with two seasons at Minnesota.

“We don't get as much attention when it comes to football. Hockey is the primary sport that is where all the attention goes,” St-Juste said while starring at Minnesota. “You have to put double the effort and double the motivation and hard work to get to the NCAA level if you come from Canada.”

French is the primary language in Quebec; he didn’t start speaking English until he was 17.

“It was pretty hard my freshman year [at Michigan],” he said, “because I had always been a fluent French speaker and I come from the French area of Canada, so trying to learn how to do all of my homework, my essays, and talking with coaches and players, learning English was pretty hard my freshman year. But I felt like I have adapted pretty well, so far.”

In 2022, the Commanders matched him one-on-one against Vikings star Justin Jefferson. Jefferson topped 100 yards and the Vikings won, but St-Juste forced an interception.

“I love getting those opportunities to go against the best,” St-Juste said after the game. “‘Jeff’ is probably top five in the league right now, so the fact that I'm able to go toe-to-toe with him, the whole game and follow him -- he made some plays, I knew it was going to be a dog fight so I tried to keep my head up and my chest out.”

Packers Cornerback Depth Chart

St-Juste adds depth at a position where the Packers had little.

Green Bay played most of last season with Nixon at one cornerback spot and Valentine or Hobbs at the other.

Hobbs, last year’s big-addition, was in and out of the lineup all season with knee injuries. The team was high on Kamal Hadden but he suffered a broken leg against Baltimore. In a Hail Mary of sorts, the Packers took a flier on former All-Pro Trevon Diggs at the end of the season, but he was released after the playoff loss.

Along with Nixon, Hobbs and Valentine, the other cornerbacks on the roster are Bo Melton, Shemar Bartholomew, Jaylin Simpson and Tyron Herring.

Valentine and Nixon are entering their final seasons under contract.

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