Paul Bretl | 5/14/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The majority of Nate Hobbs’ snaps during his four-year career with the Las Vegas Raiders came lined up in the nickel. However, Jeff Hafley and the Packers view the free agent as someone who can play both inside and out, and that is what he is going to do in Green Bay.
“I see Nate can play outside and Nate can play inside,” Hafley said when speaking with reporters on Monday. “So we’re going to have him do both. His film was, you know, when you’re getting ready for free agency and you’re evaluating tape, it’s one thing that you love about him. He’s had a lot of success inside, and I thought his tape outside was equally as good.”
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
Over the last two seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders, Hobbs has been the team’s primary nickel cornerback. However, he has experience on the boundary as well, playing over 700 career NFL snaps lined up outside, 500 of which came during the 2022 season. Going back to his days at Illinois, Hobbs spent most of his college career on the boundary, playing over 2,100 snaps there over four seasons.
So lining up outside certainly won’t be new for Hobbs.
Although the Raiders tasked Hobbs with playing the nickel, he has the measurables that we often see GM Brian Gutekunst covet at the boundary cornerback position. Hobbs has size and length, listed at 6-1 – 195 pounds and is a good athlete, posting a Relative Athletic Score of 9.61 coming out of Illinois.
“I just think he’s, he’s a really talented football player,” said Rich Bisaccia, who coached Hobbs during his time in Las Vegas. “He’s a lot bigger than you think, until you get up there and shake his hand. He can really run. He’s a physical player. He’s got great length, and you know, he’s played multiple positions.”
Hobbs is coming off of his best statistical season in the NFL in 2024. He would rank 10th out of 42 eligible slot cornerbacks in yards per snap allowed. He was also 16th in snaps per reception allowed, and Hobbs had the 11th best coverage EPA (expected points added) among all defensive backs who saw 40 or more targets.
Versatility is going to be one of the cornerstone elements of the Packers’ secondary this season. Along with Hobbs’ ability to be moved around the defensive backfield, Keisean Nixon, Javon Bullard, Evan Williams, and Xavier McKinney all provide impressive versatility, which for Hafley gives him flexibility as he puts together his weekly matchups.
The ability to mix and match and move defenders around, for one, better equips a team to handle injuries. But in addition to that, putting a variety of different looks on tape leaves an offense with a lot to prepare for. Then, in the game, pre-snap, it becomes more difficult for the quarterback to decipher who is going to be where and what might be coming, which in turn can keep opponents off-balanced and guessing.
Game planning-wise, having interchangeable defenders with differing skill sets affords Hafley the ability to really play matchups and design the play-calls for the week around what the opponent does well and what the Packers want to take away.
Hobbs’ presence in the secondary only adds to that already prominent versatility element that is present.
“He is competitive, he’s tough, he is physical, he plays the game fast, you can tell he loves it,” added Hafley. “It just jumps off the tape. I don’t know if you guys watched any of it, but it certainly jumps off the tape the way the guy plays. And he’s been a great addition and he does give you that versatility where you can move him around and again, I’m a big fan of that.”
The Packers signed Hobbs in free agency to a four-year, $48 million deal. But as Hobbs described when he arrived to Green Bay back in March for the first time, the former Day 3 draft pick who was under-recruited coming out of high school is always going to have an underdog mentality.
With the current unknowns at the cornerback position for the Packers as it pertains to Jaire Alexander’s future with the team, Hobbs is going to play an important role in providing stability at that position group.
“I just think we’re getting a really good guy that loves football and loves the opportunity to compete, and you know, he’s back with Keisan,” added Bisaccia. “That was a good thing at one time, and now we have certainly the leadership of X and the play of X back there. So we’re expecting really good things for Nate.”