Carrington Valentine is Packers best cover corner but must improve run defense in 2025
Entering his third season, here is Valentine's statistical profile based on his play in 2023 and 2024:
Strengths
It is truly impressive how well Valentine has fared in coverage ever since he first set foot on an NFL field, defying his low draft status. He has scored extremely well in various coverage statistics across 2023 and 2024.
Among qualified NFL corners, Valentine ranks in the 77th percentile in NFL passer rating allowed (NFLPR), the 74th percentile in snaps per reception allowed (S/REC) and the 73rd percentile in yards allowed per snap (Y/SNAP).
Corners are one of the positions most prone to giving up penalties, but Valentine has also performed well in that area, not giving up free yardage regularly. He ranks in the 75th percentile for penalties per snap, committing just three of them in 2023 and two in 2024.
Valentine has been best used in zone coverage in his short NFL career so far, grading out in the 90th percentile for S/REC and the 77th for Y/SNAP when in zone.
The lowest he ranked in any of the stats used to build his zone profile was the 48th percentile – still right around average – in reception percentage allowed (REC%). He has been one of the better zone corners in the league according to the numbers.
He also ranks in the 71st percentile for NFLPR when in man coverage though, showing his bona fides in that scheme.
Weaknesses
Most of Valentine's deficiencies have come in the run game, where he has frankly been a bit of a liability. He falls in just the 10th percentile for stops per game, which are tackles causing a failure for the offense, and the 14th percentile in solo tackles per snap against the run.
His issues in the run game threaten to reduce the amount he sees the field in base defense or when it is not an obvious passing situation, especially as his teammates Nate Hobbs and Keisean Nixon are much more trustworthy as run defenders.
In coverage, Valentine does not prevent receptions all that regularly, ranking in the 31st percentile in forced incompletion rate (FI%).
His issue of allowing catches too regularly has mostly shown up in man coverage, where he grades out in the 21st percentile in FI% and the 16th in REC%, compared to the 57th and 48th percentile respectively in zone coverage.
It is not an outright problem, more a feature of Valentine's style as a cornerback. He allows a lot of receptions when he is targeted, but as seen from his NFLPR and Y/SNAP numbers, quarterbacks are not exactly picking up big chunks of yardage when they throw at Valentine.
Valentine also lacks versatility, as he is strictly an outside corner, having played only 36 snaps in the slot in his NFL career. This is not an issue for the Packers specifically though, as they have plenty of other players capable of manning the slot position.
Trending up
The most obvious area of growth in Valentine's game in his second NFL season was his performance in man coverage, as he went from a well below average corner in man to an above average one, which is a very significant jump.
Valentine's NFLPR ranking improved from the 51st to the 91st percentile, while his Y/SNAP and S/REC both went from the 26th percentile to the 93rd and 99th percentile respectively.
While his overall FI% was still under the NFL average in 2024, ranking in the 37th percentile, this was up from the 24th percentile the previous year, indicating some growth in Valentine's ability to contest passes.
After grabbing the first two picks of his career in 2024, Valentine's ranking in terms of interceptions per target (INT/TGT) naturally improved significantly, from tied for last in the league in 2023 (due to having zero interceptions) to the 93rd percentile last year.
Trending down
Valentine was a poor run defender as a rookie, but he actually got even worse in 2024.
His stops per game and solo tackles per game rankings both declined, but more importantly, his ranking in terms of missed tackle rate nosediving from the 61st percentile to the 13th between 2023 and 2024.
In coverage, Valentine's only notable statistical regression helps to explain the volatile nature of the cornerback position year to year. After ranking in the 82nd percentile in REC% as a rookie, he dropped all the way to the 1st percentile last season, 125th out of 127 qualified corners.
He was able to make up for it in other ways, and was slightly better in coverage overall in 2024, but the rate of receptions Valentine is allowing is something he will want to work on.
In terms of his overall profile, Valentine is a well above average cover corner who has been consistently very good in zone and in 2024 took a big leap to being a just above average man corner as well. He profiles as Green Bay's best cover corner.
He is also by far their worst run defending cornerback though, and this drops his overall value to right at league average, which is fine, but Valentine is doing himself a disservice if he does not work on his run defense, as it could mean his snaps are more limited than he would like.
If Valentine stays exactly how he is, he was still a fantastic selection in the seventh round, but entering his age 24 season, the sky could be the limit for him in coverage.
If he can keep developing in that aspect while bringing his run defense to an acceptable level, he may become an extremely valuable player for Green Bay.
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