Green Bay Packers safety Keisean Nixon took to Twitter Monday to tell a fan: “I’m the nickel. Get over it.”
Green Bay’s coaching staff might wind up feeling different.
Rookie safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams have both had terrific training camps and have given the Packers a lot of options with their defensive backfield.
On Tuesday morning, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was asked directly about Nixon and how he views the competition at nickel corner.
“We’ll let it play out and … throughout the course of the season there’s going to be competition,” LaFleur said. “We’re trying to get our best players out there. The guys that give us the best chance to win, and there’s nothing to say that you can’t have multiple groupings as well.
“I know a lot of teams will do that, just depending upon what they want to play. Do they have a lot of different bodies in there. Some teams will have a big nickel or they get more of the safety body type in there versus their regular nickel, it’s just however it shakes out.”
When the Packers signed Nixon to a three-year, $18 million deal this offseason that included a $6.5 million signing bonus, it was widely assumed he’d be the nickel cornerback for a second straight season.
That was before Bullard and Williams arrived, though. In addition, second-year safety Anthony Johnson Jr. has had a solid summer.
Nixon set career-highs with 13 starts and 809 snaps last season. He also played a career-high 72.8% of the defensive snaps.
Overall, the results were mediocre, at best.
According to Pro Football Focus, Nixon allowed completions on a whopping 78.7% of passes thrown his way and opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of 101.1 in his coverage. Nixon also had the same number of penalties (five) as passes defensed.
The Packers made Nixon an offseason priority, though, and signed him to a three-year deal on the third day of free agency.
“He did such a good job for us in his first year as a starting nickel, playing that many snaps on defense,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “We certainly think his best football is ahead of him.”
Nixon, of course, is also one of the NFL’s elite kick returners.
Last season, Nixon was named an All-Pro kick returner for a second straight season after leading the NFL with 782 yards, 271 more than runner-up Xavier Gipson of the New York Jets. Nixon also led all qualified kickoff returners with a 26.1-yard average.
That helped him become just the fourth player to earn first-team All-Pro honors from The Associated Press at kick returner in back-to-back years (2022-23), joining Mel Gray (1990-91), Devin Hester (2006-07) and Cordarrelle Patterson (2019-20).
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