The Green Bay Packers are already facing the tough reality of a suboptimal plan. Already thin at cornerback, the defense will be without the biggest addition of the offseason for the rest of training camp and preseason. According to Bill Huber from Sports Illustrated, Nate Hobbs had to go through a minor knee surgery and is expected to miss about three weeks of action, so he can be ready for the Week 1 game against the Detroit Lions.
“The procedure was more preventative than anything. Hobbs might have been able to play through it all season with no troubles. But, with Week 1 more than a month away – the Packers will host the Detroit Lions on Sept. 7 – Hobbs and the team opted to take care of things now to ensure he’ll not only be ready for the season but be able to get through the season.”
The idea of protecting Hobbs now that games are meaningless is smart, but it’s also unfortunate that the new player will miss most of his first training camp with the Packers. The problem, and which shows the fragility of the Packers plan at cornerback, is that Hobbs has a significant injury history. Over the past three seasons, he has missed 16 games, mostly due to ankle issues. When the team cut Jaire Alexander exactly because of his injury history, that is especially a concern.
When the Packers gave Nate Hobbs a four-year, $48 million deal in free agency back in March, the perception was that the player had suffered multiple injuries due to his physicality. And he has shown that in practice—to the point where the coaching staff had to ask him to slow down.
“There’s obviously a balance to a lot of things, but we’re trying to become a certain kind of football team that can win, go deep into the playoffs, so there’s a certain kind of physicality that you have to have,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said last week. “And Nate Hobbs brings all that. That’s why we brought him here. And it’s very important that all our guys have that kind of edge to them. You want to make good decisions while you’re going through camp and keeping guys healthy. At the same time, it’s hard. We’re asking these guys to fly around, be physical in plays and to back off. Sometimes it’s not easy.”
Depth issues
The Packers are banking on cornerback being a weak-link system, since there isn’t a top cornerback in the group. But without Hobbs, the risk of having a weak-link on the field becomes greater. Right now, the starters would be Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine, with safety Javon Bullard in the slot, but there’s little margin for error left.
The room also had seventh-round rookie Micah Robinson, practice squad holdovers Kamal Hadden and Kalen King, converted wide receiver Bo Melton, Isaiah Dunn, and rookie free agents Tyron Herring, Garnett Hollis, and Johnathan Baldwin. On Monday, the Packers also signed back Corey Ballentine and waived Gregory Junior.
