The Packers may be walking into Week 1 with a cornerback problem that Minnesota is built to exploit.
Green Bay listed rookie Brandon Cisse as the starter opposite Keisean Nixon, but that spot has hardly been locked down. Cisse and Carrington Valentine rotated all summer, and the second outside corner job still looks shaky despite what the depth chart says.
That matters because of how Green Bay lines up. The Packers generally stick to left and right cornerbacks instead of shadowing an opponent’s top wideout with Nixon, which gives Kevin O’Connell a clean way to hunt the matchup he wants with Justin Jefferson. Cisse might get the first crack at it, but Valentine could end up in the same spot if the rotation keeps turning.
If Green Bay leaves either corner alone against Jefferson, Minnesota can keep feeding that side until defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon changes the coverage. If the Packers immediately send help toward No. 18, O’Connell has enough firepower to make them pay somewhere else.
The Packers’ offseason search for a dependable starter never really ended. They used the No. 52 overall pick on Cisse after he ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash and posted a 41-inch vertical.
Valentine has 34 starts on his résumé, playoffs included, but Green Bay still spent the entire offseason trying to settle the position. Even the team’s own cornerback preview said Valentine, Cisse, and Benjamin St-Juste were all in the mix.
Jefferson’s pre-snap movement only adds to the stress. O’Connell can line him up across from Cisse, motion him across the formation, or use condensed splits and stacked releases to keep Green Bay from getting a clean press at the line. Crossers and deep-over routes off play action would force a young corner to sort through traffic while staying connected to the league’s most complete receiver.
Gannon’s most cautious answer would be to tilt Xavier McKinney toward Jefferson or bracket him with help underneath. But that opens the door for other Vikings receivers to work one-on-one.
Jordan Addison has already shown he can beat single coverage deep, and the contract-year stakes are real. He does not need a pile of targets to swing a game; one busted assignment is enough for him to get into the end zone.
Jauan Jennings gives Minnesota another route to stress the defense. According to the Vikings’ breakdown of his film, he spent 70.1 percent of his 2025 snaps outside and caught 18 contested passes. If Green Bay loads up on Jefferson and keeps a safety on Addison, Jennings can work the middle against a nickel corner or linebacker and give Murray a steady answer when the defense tilts hard toward the stars.
Kyler Murray’s legs are part of the equation, too. The more bodies Green Bay commits to Jefferson and Addison, the more vulnerable it becomes to Murray as a runner. That is the bind Minnesota can create, and with the Packers’ cornerback rotation still unresolved, it looks even tougher for Green Bay to solve.
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