The Green Bay Packers didn’t have a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but general manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed the team landed a player it graded as a first-rounder anyway. Cornerback Brandon Cisse, selected 52nd overall out of South Carolina, carried a first-round grade on the Packers’ board. That revelation adds significant context to what Green Bay views as a franchise-altering selection at a position of long-term need, but also it lessens the impact of the Micah Parsons trade.

A first-round talent at a second-round price

Gutekunst spoke with Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Pete Dougherty about the cornerback situation, confirming that Cisse was among the limited group of players the Packers had graded as first-round caliber. Teams typically assign first-round grades to only 10 to 15 prospects in any given class, which means Green Bay was highly particular about the type of cornerback it wanted.

“Getting Brandon in the second round, when you’re sitting in the second round and that’s your first pick, there’s a lot that happens before that pick,” Gutekunst explained. “So you never really know how that’s going to fall. For him to fall to us, a player we had rated very highly, that certainly made a lot of sense for us.”

“We did,” Gutekunst added when asked if they had a first-round grade on Cisse.

That different types of schemes and scouting processes across the league may explain why a player the Packers valued so highly slipped to the 52nd pick. Green Bay didn’t need to trade up, and the front office secured one of its top targets without spending additional draft capital. For a team that traded its original first-round selection last year to the Dallas Cowboys in the Micah Parsons deal, the ability to land a first-round-caliber player with the team’s earliest available pick was significant.

Long-term answer at cornerback

The Packers’ need at cornerback extends well beyond 2026. Both starters, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine, are entering the final year of their contracts with Green Bay. The team released Nate Hobbs, its 2025 free agent addition, and Benjamin St-Juste, the 2026 free agent signing, is playing under a one-year deal.

That left the Packers without a long-term answer at the position. Selecting a cornerback they genuinely trust at the end of the second round addressed the franchise’s future in a way that a short-term free agent signing could not.

Cisse’s development has followed an encouraging trajectory. He didn’t see extensive work with the starters during the offseason program, but he took more and more reps with the first team as training camp progressed. He is now projected to see heavy usage as a rookie.

Valentine is returning to health, and Nixon is available, so there remains a possibility that the two veterans open the season as the starting duo against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. But Cisse has been working as the starter in training camp, and there’s a good chance he’ll be on the field when Green Bay opens its season.

“We don’t really look at it like No. 1s,” Gutekunst said. “He’s gonna play a lot, but they’re all gonna play a lot. Every rookie that comes into this league, there’s a different kind of learning curve. He’s done a really nice job so far, and we’re expecting him to help us. How much that will be from a snap count, we’ll see.”