Acme Packing Company
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to feature an unheralded part of a Green Bay Packers defense that looks ready to take the rest of the NFL and put it in a commemorative box. Cornerback Keisean Nixon had the best game of his career against the Washington Commanders last Thursday night. Now, we get to see whether Nixon can add to it as the season goes along.
Keisean Nixon has been a secret throughout most of his career, and he’s never been a superstar.
That may be about to change, and the ways in which it could really highlight how well Nixon has overcome his own limitations to his current status as the best cornerback in what is absolutely the NFL’s best defense.
An undrafted free agent out of South Carolina in 2018, Nixon signed with the then-Oakland Raiders, and never had more than 155 defensive snaps over three seasons with his first NFL team. The Packers signed Nixon to a one-year, $965,000 contract before the 2022 season, and they liked what they saw enough to re-up him for the 2023 season on a one-year, $4.75 million pact.
2023 was the first season in which Nixon was a real table-setter as an NFL cornerback; he had 937 defensive snaps overall, and 633 in coverage. While his coverage metrics weren’t insanely great — he allowed 74 catches on 95 targets for 717 yards, 333 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 100.7 — it was enough for the Pack to ask him back once again, this time on a three-year, $18 million contract with $6.5 million guaranteed. Nixon made that deal more than palatable with a 2024 season in which he allowed 57 catches on 86 targets for 529 yards, 169 yards after the catch, five touchdowns, one interception, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 97.5.
Still not “shutdown” per se, but better. In Week 1 of the 2025 season against the Detroit Lions, Nixon allowed four catches on four targets for 42 yards, 17 yards after the catch, and an opponent passer rating of 110.4.
Nixon’s most problematic play came with 1:33 left in the first quarter, when Nixon was playing outside in Cover-3 with linebacker Isaiah McDuffie in the slot. As Nixon dropped back in bail coverage against the vertical combination of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, McDuffie left to cover the flat, deep safety Javon Bullard’s deep drop was too deep, and Nixon was left hanging by either St. Brown’s out route, or Williams heading up the seam.
Still, the Packers won going away by a 27-13 score, and Jeff Hafley’s defense started to become the NFL’s worst nightmare with the addition of Micah Parsons.
Week 2 against the Washington Commanders on Thursday night would be a different test....
