Packers Sign Cornerback Who’s ‘Big on the Outside’

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ strength-in-numbers approach at cornerback continued on Saturday with the signing of undrafted rookie Garnett Hollis Jr.

While the team announced the move on Saturday, Hollis signed with the Packers after a Friday workout.

Hollis spent a couple weeks after the draft with the Tennessee Titans. He played in 26 games at Northwestern from 2021 through 2023, when he recorded two interceptions and six passes defensed – one pick and three passes defensed in 2022 and in 2023. He transferred to West Virginia for his final season, and while he didn’t intercept any passes, he set a career high with six pass breakups.

The Packers also made official the addition of running back Israel Abanikanda off waivers from the 49ers. With two open roster spots, no corresponding transactions were required.

Beyond Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine, the Packers have no cornerbacks who played a snap of defense in the NFL last season. The depth chart is flush with young, unheralded players, including receiver/cornerback Bo Melton and four late-round picks (Gregory Junior in 2023, Kamal Hadden and Kalen King in 2024 and Micah Robinson in 2025). Tyron Herring went undrafted this year out of Delaware.

Including a little bit of action as a freshman in 2021, Pro Football Focus charged Hollis with a career catch rate of 57.9 percent. In 2024, he allowed 59.2 percent but gave up 20.1 yards per catch and a career-worst five touchdowns.

Hollis had high hopes upon arriving at West Virginia. The highest of hopes.

In 2022, Beanie Bishop broke up one pass for Minnesota, a Big Ten school. He transferred to West Virginia for 2023 and earned some first-team All-American honors with four interceptions and a nation’s-best 24 passes defensed. He turned that into a shot with the Pittsburgh Steelers, for whom he played in 17 games with six starts as a rookie and intercepted four passes.

Hollis didn’t match that production or become an early-round draft pick in following a similar Big Ten-to-Morgantown path, but at least he got his foot in the door in the NFL.

“He played a big role,” Hollis said of Bishop last fall. “I was able to talk to him a little bit in the process. Just seeing him go from the Big Ten to the Big 12 and seeing his stats, it was night and day. Me? I had only 37 targets last year in the Big Ten and he had 24 passes broken up alone at WVU, so you can see how many more times he was targeted than me.”

At the time, West Virginia secondary coach ShaDon Brown thought Hollis could be a Day 2 draft pick.

“Garnett gives you a guy that's big on the outside,” Brown said via 247 Sports. “He's right at 6-2, 205 pounds. He doesn't look like a prototype corner that we've had here, but he's long, he can run, he can disrupt routes at the line of scrimmage. He gives us that big body where we can match up where at times last year, even as good as Beanie was, he would get pushed around a little bit. (Hollis is) so big and strong those plays don't happen.”

Hollis has excellent size (6-foot 3/8) and above-average athleticism (4.50 in the 40, 10-foot, 5-inch broad jump). His Relative Athletic Score was 8.26.

At Battle Ground Academy, the Nashville native caught 86 passes for 1,295 yards and 21 touchdowns on offense and had six interceptions. He also was all-district in basketball three times.

"Basketball has always been my favorite sport," Hollis told The Tennessean during his senior year at BGA. "But I'm just a lot better at football. I always wanted to go to the NBA.

"I realized (football was my future) in middle school. It's a lot harder to get to the NBA than it is the NFL. With my body and my length, the NBA would be harder to get to. I know I'm a college football player, not a college basketball player."

While he didn’t make a huge difference on the field, he made a big difference off it. For every tackle, he donated money to a 16-year-old boy battling cancer.

“I just heard your story, and it kind of touched me because I’ve had family members that have had cancer,” Hollis told the boy, Maddox Potter, via social media.

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