GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Boosting their cornerback depth was paramount for the Green Bay Packers as they sought roster upgrades after capping a five-game skid to end their 2025 season with a wild-card playoff collapse.
The impact of their moves is evident from the fact that Keisean Nixon, the Packers’ top cornerback a year ago, finds himself in a competition to keep his starting spot. Nixon occasionally has worked with the second-team defense in training camp following the Packers’ offseason additions of rookie second-round draft pick Brandon Cisse and veteran free agent Benjamin St-Juste.
“I guess I’m being punished right now, I guess, I don’t know,” Nixon said. “I don’t really worry about what I’m running in camp, ones or twos, I just keep my process and just compete — for real.”
Nixon, a two-time All-Pro kick returner, earned his first Pro Bowl selection on defense last year as an injury replacement. He is the only cornerback in the NFL to have at least 70 tackles, six passes defensed and an interception in each of the last three seasons.
But that doesn’t mean he has anything locked up this year.
“We have a corner competition,” new Packers secondary coach Bobby Babich said Friday, a day after Green Bay’s preseason opener. “That’s what we have.”
The Packers also return Carrington Valentine, who has started 30 games over the last three seasons but missed part of training camp with a leg injury.
Green Bay’s lack of cornerback depth last year was apparent when the Packers gave up 25 fourth-quarter points and blew a 21-3 halftime lead in a 31-27 playoff loss at Chicago. Three weeks earlier, the Packers fell 22-16 in overtime at Chicago after allowing the Bears to score on each of their last four possessions.
Head coach Matt LaFleur discussed what he wants from his cornerbacks.
“Obviously, it starts with doing your right assignment, and then it comes down to your style of play,” LaFleur said. “How are you competing going after the ball, not only in the pass game but in the run game, as well? Are you sticking your nose in there? We need corners that are willing and capable tacklers.”
Cisse has made a noteworthy first impression in that regard as he begins his pro career after playing at N.C. State (2023-24) and South Carolina (2025).
“The guy’s a film junkie, wants to be really good, puts in the work that it takes to be really good,” Babich said. “It’s similar to some of the rookies that I’ve been around in my past that have success early on, specifically at that position and it’s really about the way he goes about his work.”
Cisse believes there’s still plenty of work to do.
“Obviously there’s going to be moments where you see flashes and things like that, but there’s a lot of growing pains I’m also going through,” he said. “I need to get better at those things. I’m just excited to clean it up and continue to get better every day.”
St. Juste also has stood out.
Although he played only 35% of the Los Angeles Chargers’ defensive snaps last season, St-Juste performed well enough in those opportunities that his Pro Football Focus rating ranked 12th among all NFL cornerbacks.
“I like the fact that with the limited amount of snaps that I had, I was capitalizing on it,” St-Juste said. “Every time, every chance I had to be on the field, I was either in good coverage making a play. I’m just trying to build on that, add more reps this year and make more plays and slowly start to ascend as a player.”
Nixon’s background suggests he won’t give up his starting spot without a fight. He had to work his way to get to this point.
“I don’t view myself in no competition,” Nixon said. “I come here to compete for myself. What they do and who they choose, that’s out of my control.”
Nixon, 29, spent his first three seasons primarily as a special teams contributor with the Raiders after signing as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina. He came to Green Bay in 2022 and emerged as an All-Pro kick returner his first two seasons with the Packers while gradually getting more playing time on defense.
He became the Packers’ top cornerback when injuries limited Jaire Alexander for much of the 2024 season and maintained that role after Alexander was released in the summer of 2025.
“Everybody knows my story,” Nixon said. “I came from the bottom, got to where I’m at. It doesn’t bother me running with the twos, threes. It don’t matter. It’s hard to keep me off the field. So when it’s time to play, I know what time it is.”
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Green Bay Packers cornerback Benjamin St-Juste participates in warmups before a preseason NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
REO, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of people waited for aid on the Indonesian island of Flores on Monday as the country marked its 81st Independence Day, two days after a powerful earthquake killed at least 68 people, injured more than 200 others and damaged thousands of homes.
Many residents on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province spent the day mourning victims while military teams tried to deliver food, clean water and clothing to inaccessible communities by plane.
The Saturday morning quake left widespread damage, with buildings collapsed onto parked cars, homes shattered and trees and boulders blocking roads.
“My house is just rubble now,” said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in the village of Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency. "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently.”
During Indonesia’s Independence Day ceremony in the capital, Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence honoring the nation’s independence heroes.
More than 4,500 homes were damaged when the quake struck Flores island early Saturday. Some 19,000 people were forced into temporary shelters and 213 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency or BNPB. The disaster also damaged 122 health facilities, 252 schools and 84 places of worship.
The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday.
The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities have since recorded 1,576 aftershocks into Monday, though only 54 were felt by residents.
Thousands of people on Flores camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents overnight into Monday, sleeping outside because of the danger of more aftershocks.
For many residents, the disaster revived painful memories of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores in 1992, killing about 2,500 people.
As thousands of survivors remain in need of food, shelter and medical treatment, the government said more than 1,800 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone, supported by 10 aircraft and several vessels, to distribute more than 100 metric tons of emergency aid.
Nearly 5,400 food packages, two field hospital tents, medicines and clothing were being delivered to communities across the disaster zone, as logistical challenges slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities, national disaster agency Deputy Chief Abdul Muhari said in a video statement.
Authorities set up two emergency field hospitals in the worst-hit town of Ruteng to treat earthquake victims after local hospitals were damaged, with two crisis management teams overseeing a health emergency operation center, Muhari said.
He also said rescue teams continued searching for victims in the affected areas, although no residents have reported any family members still missing.
Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the areas closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, late Sunday, after a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain, authorities said. Thousands of residents remained in urgent need of assistance.
"The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey,” said the deputy police chief of Sikka regency, Marselus Yugo Amboro, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies.
He said initial assessments revealed extensive damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone.
Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan, Dita Alangkara and Andi Jatmiko, in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this story.
An erthquake survivor receives medical treatment at a makeshift medical center in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dicky Bisinglasi)
Earthquake survivors take shelter in tents in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dicky Bisinglasi)
Saverinus Serli, left, inspects his earthquake-damaged house in Lelak, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
A man examines a building that collapsed during an earthquake in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
A broken statue of Jesus Christ is seen inside an earthquake-damaged church in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Earthquake survivors make fire to warm themselves outside their makeshift tent in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
People take shelter in makeshift tent amid fears of aftershocks, following an earthquake in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Motorists ride past a building that collapsed during an earthquake in Reo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
