Green Bay Packers cornerback Nate Hobbs has not been having the year that he hoped to have with the team when he signed a four-year, $48 million contract with the Packers in free agency. First, he injured his knee in the summer and needed meniscus surgery to be ready for the regular season. Since returning to the team, he’s been the least effective outside cornerback out of the Packers’ trio at the position. Now, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Ryan Wood, Hobbs will miss the next several weeks with another knee injury.
Per Wood, this Grade 1 MCL sprain will take at least two weeks to recover from, meaning that Hobbs is expected to miss at least the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants games. Based on that timeline, the earliest that Hobbs should return is in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings, when the team will start a stretch of playing five divisional opponents in the final seven weeks of the regular season.
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Wood claims that Hobbs’ MCL sprain is in the opposite knee from the one he had surgery on this summer. This issue began during the Packers’ tie with the Dallas Cowboys before their bye week, but an MRI on Monday revealed to the organization that it wasn’t a cyst, as the team originally believed, but a tear.
Wood also added that Hobbs removed himself from action against the Carolina Panthers due to pain in his knee.
Without Hobbs, the Packers will start Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine at outside cornerback, which has been typical of the team over the last two weeks. The depth at the position is incredibly thin now, though, as the only other cornerbacks on the 53-man roster are Bo Melton and Kamal Hadden, neither of whom has ever played a defensive snap in the regular season. On top of that, 2025 draft pick Micah Robinson was poached off Green Bay’s practice squad last week by the Tennessee Titans.
Hobbs was also the Packers’ backup slot defender behind safety Javon Bullard. Without Hobbs, it’s a question mark who will come in as the next slot defender up if Bullard ever does have to leave due to injury. Only Nixon has ever played that role before for Green Bay in the past, and he hasn’t done it this year.
Bullard was also occasionally replaced by Hobbs in the slot in obvious passing downs. We’ll have to wait until the Vikings game to see that again.
