Packers Update: Brandon Cisse Seizing No. 1 Cornerback Reps as Valentine’s Hamstring Injury Drags On

Green Bay’s cornerback competition has a clear leader for now, and it’s not the incumbent. Rookie Brandon Cisse took every first-team rep at cornerback opposite Keisean Nixon during Thursday’s Practice 7, according to SI’s Packers on SI, while Carrington Valentine sat out for a full week with the hamstring injury that’s reshaping Green Bay’s Packers cornerback battle heading into the 2026 season.

General manager Brian Gutekunst said as much himself Thursday. “He looks like the guy that we evaluated,” Gutekunst said of Cisse. “I really like how he’s competed. He’s shown up every day. He’s been prepared.” According to Packers on SI, Gutekunst added the coaching staff has been pleased with how intentional Cisse has been about his preparation, even while acknowledging there’s a long way to go.

What changed since Valentine went down

Valentine dropped out of practice on August 2 before 11-on-11 drills and didn’t return, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. The next day, head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed it plainly. “He hurt his leg,” LaFleur said. “He’ll be out.” The team’s participation report later specified a hamstring strain.

That was four practices ago. As of Thursday’s Practice 7 — one day old as of this writing — Valentine still hadn’t returned, per Packers on SI’s daily camp log. LaFleur has called the injury not long-term, but “not long-term” and “a full week missed entering the heart of camp” are two different things for a player fighting to keep a job.

Cisse, the Packers’ top pick of the 2026 draft at No. 52 overall, has made the most of the opening. He’s been working with the first-team defense in 11-on-11 drills essentially every day Valentine has been out, and it’s stacking on top of reps he was already stealing before the injury — Nixon himself opened camp out with a hamstring issue of his own, which put both Cisse and Valentine in with the starters from day one.

Valentine isn’t without his own case to make. He started 11 games in 2025 and played a career-high 780 snaps after Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes left the roster. But the tape wasn’t kind: opposing quarterbacks posted a 121.2 passer rating when targeting him, a career-worst mark, even as he held completion percentage down to 59.7%. He’s also entering the final year of his rookie contract, which raises the stakes on this camp beyond just Week 1 status.

Gannon’s scheme adds another wrinkle

Whoever wins the job will be doing it inside new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s system, which early camp reports describe as more aggressive than what Green Bay ran under the previous staff. LaFleur has hinted at what’s coming. “There’s been some exotic looks in practice, and we’re gonna see some of that early on in the season,” LaFleur said of Gannon’s approach, according to Packers Wire.

Part of the aggression may be necessity as much as design — edge rusher Micah Parsons remains on the physically unable to perform list as he continues recovering from ACL surgery, and Gannon may lean on more exotic pressure packages to compensate until Parsons is cleared.

Smack’s kicking competition: a battle of one

Green Bay’s other position battle isn’t really a battle at all right now — it’s a one-man audition, and it hasn’t gone smoothly. Rookie kicker Trey Smack, drafted in the sixth round out of Florida, is 8-of-13 on field goal attempts through his first two live kicking periods of camp.

Smack is the only kicker on Green Bay’s roster after the team released both Lucas Havrisik and Lenny Krieg before camp opened, leaving him without direct competition. That decision looks less comfortable after a rocky start, and Gutekunst has already signaled he’d like more insurance at the position. Packers beat writer Ryan Wood reported on X that Gutekunst said he’d like to add a second kicker, but that long snapper Matt Orzech’s calf injury — which landed him on the PUP list — forced the team to prioritize bringing in a backup snapper instead.

LaFleur, for his part, has downplayed the misses as part of the process. “I know, but at the end of the day you’re talking about practice situations,” LaFleur said, according to Sports Illustrated. “I think the real tests will come in those preseason games and then, obviously, into the regular season.” He pointed to Smack’s 51-yard make to close a two-minute drill as the kind of finish that matters more than the early misses.

The bigger question is conditions. Smack has been missing kicks in Wisconsin’s late-July and early-August warmth. Lambeau Field in December is a different building entirely — wind off the bay, temperatures that turn a routine 40-yarder into an adventure. Green Bay’s kicking search has been a sore spot since Mason Crosby left; Anders Carlson and Breyden Narveson both struggled before Smack arrived, and Brandon McManus was released within two weeks of the draft that brought Smack in.

What it means going forward

Neither battle is settled, and neither should be treated like it is. Camp reps favor Cisse right now, and Gutekunst’s public comments this week read as a vote of confidence — but a rookie’s strong August doesn’t guarantee a Week 1 nameplate, and Valentine has a track record LaFleur has praised before. At kicker, Smack simply doesn’t have an alternative in the building yet; his margin for error may be thinner because of it, not wider.

Both competitions should sharpen once the Packers open preseason play, when live tackling, actual game officials, and away-stadium noise replace the closed practice fields in Green Bay.