Paul Bretl | 6/10/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — On Day 1 of Packers minicamp, there was a new face working out with the cornerback group during individual drills. And no, GM Brian Gutekunst didn’t make an addition; rather, it was wide receiver Bo Melton.
As practice unfolded and moved to the team portion, Melton would play on both sides of the football. Wearing his white jersey when with the offense as a wide receiver, and then quickly throwing on a green penny when he moved to the cornerback position.
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
At least for today’s practice, Melton was the fourth Packers’ cornerback, playing behind Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs, and Carrington Valentine. When Nixon and Hobbs weren’t on the field, it was Valentine and Melton who lined up outside. We saw Melton matched up with Matthew Golden at one point and in a position to make a “tackle” on Tucker Kraft.
“I think the first thing you always look at from a corner is, can they play man-to-man?” Matt LaFleur said after Tuesday’s practice. “But you need multiple people that can play man-to-man, so whether it’s safeties and backers, there’s always matchups that you’ve got to account for. But one of the first things you look at when you’re evaluating a guy is their ability to go out and play man coverage because that’s arguably the toughest thing to do.”
This is now the third practice that has been open to the media, and that fourth cornerback role has been rotated often up to this point. In the first OTA practice, it was Gregory Junior who filled that role. In OTA practice No. 2, it was Kamal Hadden, and today it was Melton’s job.
As Matt LaFleur mentioned, in part, this move for Melton was out of necessity with Jaire Alexander no longer on the team and Kalen King sidelined due to injury. But the team also believes that Melton has the versatility and skill set to play that position as well
“Obviously he’s real talented player,” LaFleur said. “And has produced. I just love everything about the guy. How he shows up every day ready to compete and give his best effort — matter of fact, I showed some clips of him in the team meeting this morning, just of what he does, and you can always expect a lot of great things when he’s, whatever it is he’s doing.”
Melton doesn’t have any cornerback experience in the NFL or even in college while at Rutgers. Instead, it was his play on special teams over the last two seasons, more so than what he’s done on offense, that played a key role in facilitating this move.
“I think it’s more, again his play on special teams, more so than maybe something we saw from the offensive side of the ball,” said LaFleur. “Again, you don’t have too many wideouts in this league that are as effective as he is on teams.”
Beyond Hobbs, Nixon, and Valentine, the Packers have very little experience on the cornerback depth chart. In fact, of the other seven cornerbacks on the roster, Isaiah Dunn’s 116 career defensive snaps are the fourth-most on the team, and none of those seven cornerbacks played an NFL snap in 2024.
“I would say it’s kind of a work in progress right now,” LaFleur said. “I mean, we don’t have pads on or anything like that. and there’s a lot of limitations in regards to what you can and can’t do, so I think there’s a lot of wait-and-see in terms of who are going to be the other guys. I think we know that three of those guys have gone out and played significant snaps, and then we’ve got of young guys that are just kind of unknown.”
Potentially, this could create an opportunity for Melton to fill some sort of role. All we know right now is that at a position group where teams typically roster five or six players on the 53-man, only three of those spots are currently accounted for.
However, having said that, this situation with Melton and playing some snaps at cornerback will remain fluid. Whether this is more of an experiment or if there’s something more to it will be uncovered once we get to training camp.
“I think it’s just kind of, it’s going to be pretty fluid, I would say” added LaFleur. “I kind of presented it to him and I know obviously there’s a lot of attention with (Travis) Hunter down there in Jacksonville with what he’s doing, so we just kind of presented it to him and he said he was up for the challenge.”