Packers Releasing Nate Hobbs After One Incredibly Expensive, Painful Season

On the heels of signing Benjamin St-Juste, the Green Bay Packers are releasing cornerback Nate Hobbs, a source told Packers On SI on Tuesday morning.

With that, the final three seasons of Hobbs’ four-year, $48 million contract have been incinerated. Hobbs for his one season received a $16 million roster bonus and a $1.2 million base salary. That’s $17.2 million for five starts and two pass breakups. He received $48,044 per defensive snap.

Hobbs was due a $6.25 million roster bonus later this week.

According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the Packers are designating Hobbs as a June 1 release. The cap savings were negligible at about $838,000. Now, they’ll save $8.38 million, with the difference being dumped on the 2027 salary cap.

Because Hobbs’ cap charge will remain on the books until June 1, the Packers might be looking to use the eventual savings to help fund a contract extension.

Terrible Contract

The Packers gave the same four-year, $48 million contract to Hobbs as they did to running back Josh Jacobs. That’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, obviously, but the signing was questionable at the time.

Essentially, the Packers signed Hobbs to replace Jaire Alexander. That was swapping one injury-prone cornerback for another. During Hobbs’ final three seasons with the Raiders from 2022 through 2024, he played in 37 of a possible 51 games. That’s 14 games on the sideline – six in 2022, four in 2023 and six in 2024.

So, the Packers were expecting an injury-plague cornerback to not be injured.

They were expecting a cornerback with minimal ball production – three interceptions and 19 passes defensed in four seasons – to help a big-play defense take the next step.

“I’m going to be an underdog if I was getting paid $100 million, because I don’t see any articles or anything out of me being the top corner. Do you?” Hobbs said after signing.

“Have you seen, ‘Nate Hobbs is a top corner, Nate Hobbs is top five.’ Nah, so even if I was a $100 million guy, in my heart of hearts, I’m an underdog, and I’m never going to forget that. And I could be the top corner, whatever the case is. Still an underdog, because I had to scratch and claw and fight to get here. Nothing was given to me, everything was taken. I say, there’s two ways to get respect. You either earn it or you take it. I like taking it. I’m going to be an underdog till I die. That’s just me.”

They also were expecting a slot cornerback to play on the perimeter. Hobbs at least did have some cornerback background, but most of his action came in the slot. On Day 1 of training camp, Hobbs joined Keisean Nixon as the starting cornerbacks.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens (3) catches a pass over Green Bay Packers cornerback Nate Hobbs (21). | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Injuries, Injuries and More Injuries

Early in training camp, Hobbs suffered a knee injury, which sidelined him all the way through Week 1. Hobbs started the next five games before he was replaced in the starting lineup by Carrington Valentine for Week 8 at Pittsburgh.

A couple weeks later, the Packers shut down Hobbs because of a knee issue. He returned to the lineup for Week 14 against Chicago but suffered another knee injury when he collided with a Ravens receiver in the end zone in Week 17.

“I can honestly say, now I'm getting to the point where I'm glad it happened,” he said of his rocky season. “I ain't going to lie, it's made me a better person, a better leader, a better man, and I know if I get kicked back to nothing or rock bottom, I know I can get it back. Every time. And I feel like, at the end of the season I really came, I was starting to come back alive and be myself.”

Hobbs’ season ended with 11 games played and five starts. He was sidelined three times by knee injuries and broke up two passes.

“It is what it is, man,” Hobbs said as he limped through the locker room. “It is a lot, but I just want Packer Nation to know that I have been playing through injuries all year and, no matter what, I brought passion, I brought my best, I brought all of me.

“I’m a top-tier player for this organization. When the time is right, I’ll be able to show that when I’m healthy. I wasn’t healthy at all this year. I see what people say. There’s a lot of fans that don’t like me, that think I’m not a good player. But it’s all good. I know who I am as a man, as a player. Just want to show that when I get the next opportunity.”

That next opportunity will come with another team.

A ‘Cut-Throat’ League

The Packers’ top three cornerbacks are Nixon, Valentine and St-Juste, a three-year starter for Washington who started two games last season for the Chargers. They’ll probably be looking for more depth, whether it’s free agency or a deep draft class.

Hobbs said it was “one of my toughest years” in the NFL and that he felt helpless being sidelined along with Micah Parsons and Tucker Kraft.

“This league, it's cut-throat, you know what I'm saying?” Hobbs said after the season. “If you want to be out there, can you perform or can you not? And that's how it should be. We all grown men and this is what we do for a living. And nobody gives a damn if you hurt or not out there. When I got hurt at the beginning of the season, I couldn't think of it like that. I couldn't think like, ‘Damn, I'm already behind. I had to be like, ‘Hey, look, this is just something that happened. I'm going to get back to who I am.’

“Earlier this week, I was processing the whole year, and I was like, honestly, to get hurt and to have the injury I had and have surgery in camp to miss the whole camp … having surgery and coming back in the same season and missing all of camp and then being expected to just be the same person you were that's not reality. That's not reality at all. …

“I got to forgive myself for having that expectation of myself in my mind and then not meeting that expectation. That did affect me mentally, not being who I was before immediately.”

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