The Packers’ secondary suddenly has a hole to patch.
Johnathan Baldwin had been one of the more surprising names to emerge in camp, and for a stretch it looked like he was pushing his way onto the Green Bay Packers’ 53-man roster. The defensive back seemed to settle in as the No. 2 slot corner behind Javon Bullard in Jonathan Gannon’s defense, and he backed up that buzz with a pick against Tyrod Taylor.
Then came the knee injury in practice, and Green Bay waived him with an injury designation. That doesn’t close the door entirely - there’s still a possible path back to the practice squad once he’s healthy - but it does leave the Packers with a fresh question in the middle of camp.
Who is backing up Bullard at nickel?
That question got even louder after Bullard left Sunday’s practice with what appeared to be an injury. It’s not clear how much time he might miss, if any, but the timing only makes the situation messier. What had looked like a clean setup earlier in camp - Bullard as the starter, Baldwin as the next man up - has turned into uncertainty fast.
The depth chart at slot corner has already been thin. Bullard handled 493 snaps there in 2025, by far the most on the roster. Evan Williams logged 126, Nate Hobbs 86, Xavier McKinney 46, Kitan Oladapo 34, Trevon Diggs 11, Keisean Nixon six, Carrington Valentine six, Baldwin six and Zayne Anderson five, per PFF.
Several of those names are no longer around. Hobbs, Diggs and Anderson are gone, and Williams and McKinney’s work in the slot came with most of their snaps at free safety and box safety. That leaves the Packers sorting through a shorter list than they probably wanted at this point.
Oladapo got the first crack with the starting defense after Bullard went down on Sunday, so he looks like the leading in-house option for now.
Nixon is another name worth watching. According to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, he worked some with the backup defense on Sunday, which is a little unexpected. That could mean Green Bay is at least open to the idea of Brandon Cisse and Benjamin St-Juste handling the outside spots, with Nixon sliding inside if Bullard has to leave the field.
That would be a notable shift, especially since Nixon has plenty of experience at nickel. From 2023 to 2024, he played 974 snaps at slot corner, per PFF.
But the Packers moved him outside full-time for a reason. His coverage grades at slot corner were 60.3 and 60.7 in those two seasons before he improved to 67.8 last year while playing mostly on the boundary.
For now, Bullard is still the Packers’ starting slot corner, and the hope is that his injury isn’t serious.
As for Baldwin, his early-camp surge made him look like a real backup option, especially with the flexibility to line up in different spots. His waiver with an injury designation is a sharp reminder of how quickly things can change.
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