Corey Ballentine’s NFL journey has taken another turn, and this one comes with a fresh opportunity in Jacksonville.
The former Packers cornerback, who spent two seasons in Green Bay after arriving in 2023 to help a battered cornerback room, has signed with the Jaguars. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the move on the eve of Jaguars training camp, noting that Jacksonville placed Dane Jackson on the Retired/Reserve list as the corresponding transaction.
For Ballentine, it’s another chance to hang around, and that’s become something of a calling card. He lasted seven seasons in the league, bounced through several teams, and kept finding ways to stick.
After Green Bay moved on from him just before the start of the 2025 regular season, he quickly landed with the Dallas Cowboys. He re-signed with Dallas early in 2026, only to be cut in July when the roster math caught up with him.
Now the Jaguars are giving him a look, but the path to a roster spot won’t be easy. Four cornerback jobs appear spoken for with Travis Hunter, Jarrian Jones, Jourdan Lewis, and Montaric Brown.
That leaves one spot that could be fought over by sophomore Jabbar Muhammad and fourth-year pro Christian Braswell, unless Jacksonville decides to keep six cornerbacks. If that happens, Ballentine could be in the mix with both of them.
Special teams may be his clearest route onto the roster. Ballentine hasn’t played more than 100 defensive snaps in either of the past two seasons, but he has logged plenty of work in the kicking game. With Dallas, he played 23 defensive snaps and 47 on special teams.
His résumé also includes stops with the Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, and Baltimore Ravens after the New York Giants made him a sixth-round pick in 2019.
Ballentine’s time in Green Bay was notable because he delivered when the Packers needed help. In 2023, he played a career-high 488 defensive snaps for the team. Green Bay let him walk in 2025, then brought him back later that same year before cutting him again.
He’s not a Pro Bowl name, and he’s never been sold as one. But he’s exactly the kind of veteran depth piece teams keep circling back to: dependable enough to help, versatile enough to matter, and tough enough to keep chasing the next opening. The Jaguars just handed him one.
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