Aaron Banks is injured and Nate Hobbs is getting torched, after coming back from injury.
The 2025 offseason was likely the last big dip into free agency that the Green Bay Packers will get for a couple of years. There are a couple of reasons for that: Their shrinking available salary cap, plus their need to turn expiring contracts into future compensatory picks, which they would offset by signing outside free agents.
That’s what made the signings of guard Aaron Banks and cornerback Nate Hobbs so critical, following the wins that were the additions of running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney in the free agency period prior.
So far, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has come up bust on the Banks and Hobbs moves.
At the moment, Banks is the eighth-highest-paid guard in the NFL. Through four weeks, he has yet to start and finish the same game.
Meanwhile, Hobbs was exposed against the Dallas Cowboys, a game in which he gave up two touchdowns.
According to NFL Pro’s data, Hobb has given up 6.5 expected points as an outside cornerback over 69 snaps.
For perspective, that’s 0.09 points per snap, about a point given up every 10 that he plays in coverage.
Among the 63 cornerbacks with as many snaps as Hobbs, only 12 have posted a worse expected points allowed per snap in 2025.
Those players, by in large, are injury replacements, guys who have bounced on multiple teams in their NFL careers and/or rookie contract players on their way to busting:
- Kaiir Elam
- Kool-Aid McKinstry
- Xavien Howard
- Trevon Diggs
- Adoree’ Jackson
- Emmanuel Forbes
- Max Melton
- Kyu Blue Kelly
- L’Jarius Sneed
- Denzel Burke
- Terrion Arnold
So it’s not fair to say that Hobbs is the worst cornerback in the league, even if you thought that watching him against the Cowboys. What is fair, though, is calling him a bottom 20 percent cornerback in the NFL.
Moving on from Banks next year would cost the Packers $20.25 million in cap space. It would cost the team $12 million in cap space to move on from Hobbs in 2026.
These additions were supposed to be building blocks for what the team looks like moving forward, especially if they want to push cap dollars into the future to create short-term cap space during this “title window,” but we have yet to see that impact.
Maybe it’s coming. Hobbs is coming off a summer knee surgery. Banks hasn’t been off the injury report since he was rolled up in Week 1. Let’s just hope this bye week leads to that duo coming back well-rested.
