Paul Bretl | 8/6/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — On Tuesday, Corey Ballentine found himself in a familiar place, practicing on Ray Nitschke Field and navigating the halls of Lambeau Field as he bounced from one meeting to the next. He was also around many familiar faces, welcomed back by teammates and coaches after spending the previous three seasons with the Packers.
However, while there is familiarity with the surroundings, people, and even the defensive and special teams schemes, all of which can be helpful, what Ballentine has done previously for the Packers doesn’t matter in 2025.
“Nothing is going to be given to me, just showing up here,” Ballentine said at his locker on Tuesday. “And I like that. I like that they’re going to push me to be better and hold me to a standard that I know I need to achieve, and that’s only going to help me at the end. I’m very happy to be back and glad to have the coaches that I have and the players in the locker room that’ll push me to be better.”
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For most of 2022 through 2024, Ballentine was with the Packers. This past offseason, he was a free agent, and as Ballentine acknowledged, going into Year 7 on a team that’s been the youngest in the NFL for two seasons, he wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t re-signed.
Ballentine would end up signing a one-year, $1.33 million deal with $482,500 guaranteed. But late last week, the Colts made the decision to move on from Ballentine and released him.
That is an unfortunate reality that comes with being in the NFL, particularly for late Day 3 draft picks out of small schools like Ballentine, who have to constantly prove themselves.
After being drafted by the Giants in 2019, he was waived by the team halfway through the 2020 season. In 2021, the Jets waived Ballentine late in August. He then caught on with the Lions, where he played just 48 special teams snaps.
In 2022, Ballentine was waived by Atlanta during roster cutdowns. He then signed with Arizona’s practice squad in early September, only to be released less than two weeks later before joining the Packers.
Even during the 2023 season, one in which Ballentine played a crucial role defensively as the Packers navigated injuries at cornerback, he was initially released during cutdowns before being signed back to the practice squad.
So the recent experience of being released by the Colts is something that Ballentine has navigated before. But that doesn’t mean the process of doing that is any less difficult.
“Obviously, it’s never fun getting released. So I mean it was hard,” Ballentine said. “You go through the mental battles of I guess [losing] a little bit of confidence. Because it’s like, ‘They didn’t want me,’ in a sense. Or maybe didn’t need me at the time, and it’s like, ‘What do I need to do to change that?’ And just kind of going through the emotions, going through the situations, what I can do myself to fix it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Ballentine’s journey during his NFL career has, in part, and at least from a football sense, helped mold him into the player he is today. He hasn’t tried to shake those past experiences of being released, but has chosen to embrace them and use those moments as fuel on the field.
“It’s been hard,” Ballentine said of his journey, “but I also think stuff like that builds character. And I think that kind of what this whole team is built on, essentially. A lot of the guys in here have been through things, have experienced hardship in their lives and we all kind of fight through it.
“We show that on the field, we kind of play like that. so I’m not trying to act like my story is any different than anyone else’s but I feel like that’s kind of part of me and I try to embrace that and show that on the field as much as I can.”
During his nearly three full seasons with the Packers, Ballentine has been a core special teams player. Last season, this included contributing to five of the six different phases.
Ballentine’s role on defense was mostly small, filling in when the Packers were dealing with injuries at cornerback. However, in 2023, he did play 488 snaps that season while making six starts, one of which came in a must-win game in Minnesota in Week 17.
The Vikings went after Ballentine in that game, targeting him eight times, but he allowed just two receptions for 13 yards while forcing an interception and a pass breakup.
In 2024, Ballentine remained a key special teams contributor, but played just 75 snaps on defense. Admittedly hard on himself and always expecting more, heading into the 2025 season, Ballentine is focused on being more positive when things go awry.
“My goal for this year would just be more positive,” Ballentine said. “When things don’t go my way or if I have a short mindset when I make a mistake or something like that. Not getting so down on myself mentally when I know I could be better or do better and it doesn’t work out. I think I could be a little better with that.”
Ballentine’s familiarity with Jeff Hafley and Rich Bisaccia’s systems will help him reacclimate quickly to Green Bay, but there will still be a learning curve he has to navigate, as Ballentine acknowledged.
His return provides added help on special teams and boosts the cornerback depth while the team is without Nate Hobbs. Outside of Hobbs, Keisean Nixon, and Carrington Valentine, Ballentine is now the fourth-most experienced player in the cornerback room in terms of regular-season defensive snaps.
Looking at this Packers’ cornerback room, one can see a path for Ballentine to make a roster push. But Ballentine isn’t worried about that right now. Instead, he’s fixated on the day-to-day process, controlling what he can control, and of course, making plays.
“I mean, what anybody has to do — make plays, be where I’m supposed to be, execute, not make the same mistake twice, and just show up every day with a good attitude, honestly,” Ballentine said of making the team. “Sometimes the road gets hard, things don’t go your way, not getting down on yourself, coming back the next day and fixing all the issues and executing, really. And helping the team in whatever way we can to win games.”