Hindsight is always 20/20 when it comes to draft picks and free-agent signings, but some big-money moves have disaster written all over them. Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst may soon need to face the music after one of his biggest free-agent signings of the 2025 offseason has completely flopped.
The Packers can no longer ignore the massive cost of signing cornerback Nate Hobbs, who was supposed to come in and help stabilize a position that had a ton of question marks.
Unfortunately, the situation with Hobbs has been brutal for a number of different reasons, and it could come back to bite the Packers at the worst possible time.
Packers' decision to replace Eric Stokes with Nate Hobbs is coming back to haunt them
Hobbs signed a four-year deal worth $48 million in total money with the Packers this offseason, and a pretty team-friendly $16 million in guarantees. The low guarantees on his contract could be the saving grace for Gutekunst, and the Packers' way out of this deal after the 2025 season reaches its conclusion.
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Hobbs has only played seven games for the Packers so far, and he was benched in favor of Carrington Valentine. Furthermore, the Packers may have completely miscast Hobbs by playing him on the outside when it was abundantly clear during his time with the Las Vegas Raiders that he's much more effective playing in the slot.
The news goes from bad to worse when you consider the fact that Hobbs signed in Green Bay on a big-money deal, while former Packers first-round pick Eric Stokes effectively took his place with the Raiders on a one-year prove-it deal. And Stokes has done quite well in his first year with the Raiders, ranking 22nd out of 110 qualifiers in PFF performance grade.
When it comes to free agency, you win some, and you lose some. It's rare for truly quality players like Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney to reach free agency, so the Packers may have gotten lucky enough in 2024 that it inspired some impulse decisions in 2025.
Especially considering the fact that the Packers made Jaire Alexander an offseason cut, maybe they should have been the ones to offer Stokes a one-year prove-it deal instead. It's hard to pin that one entirely on the Packers as a miss, however, because Stokes had three seasons with a lack of availability and productivity.
But we did see Green Bay give Christian Watson a one-year extension on his contract while he was hurt, so the issue with Stokes was obviously that the organization had given up on him from the top down.
Hobbs had just one pass defensed in his seven games this season and has not lived up to the billing of his contract status, and the fact that Stokes is playing well for the Raiders makes things look even worse for Gutekunst.