As we look ahead to the free agent period, I naturally start looking around the league to see who may be available to sign, particularly those who play positions that the Green Bay Packers need. The cornerback room is one of the big positions the Packers need to attack this year. Today, we will be looking at Asante Samuel Jr. and seeing how he may fit in Green Bay.

Let’s start with the high-level stuff.

Name: Asante Samuel Jr. (According to Pro Football Reference, he doesn’t have a nickname. Feels like a red flag.)
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 180lbs
Drafted: 2nd round (47th overall) in the 2021 Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers
Age: 25
2024 PFF Grade: 59.3

That PFF grade is bad, and his tackling grade of 29.5 is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in that regard. I tend to take PFF grades with a grain of salt, but, overall, they tend to be fairly close to what I see when I watch a player.

Let’s start with the tackling grade since that’s the first thing that seems to come up whenever I bring up Asante Samuel Jr.

Listen. It’s not pretty. To accompany the grade, PFF has Samuel with a 22.2% missed tackle rate.

However, while the numbers and the above plays are bad, those are not the entire story when it comes to Samuel. The missed tackles we just looked at aren’t the result of a lack of effort or hustle: they’re the result of poor technique (dropping his head) or taking a less-than-ideal angle. Both of those are fixable to a certain extent.

On this play, he’s on the outside, initially over Davante Adams. When Adams runs a slant, Samuel passes him off and gets eyes to the flat, where he drives and cuts a man down.

Or this play where he drives and tackles Brock Bowers in-bounds in a late-game situation.

What stood out to me the most when I was watching Samuel was his intelligence. He clearly understood his assignment on each play, as well as the assignments of those around him. His film is filled with him communicating with the defense and making some smooth defensive switches.

One of my favorites is this one against the Chiefs. He’s initially picking up the outside man, but when that receiver goes vertically he passes him off to the safety and gets eyes to the flat, angling himself to keep eyes on the QB. As the play starts to break down, Samuel spots the shallow crosser running at him and drives there.

That’s three different switches and he’s in great position on each one.

I also really love some of the vertical switches. Here, the Chiefs are running a switch vertical to Samuel’s side. Samuel initially carries the outside man, but when that route bends inside, he passes that receiver off to the safety inside and seamlessly picks up the vertical that switched to the boundary.

He also does a nice job of driving down on a play when he needs to. Against the Panthers, you can see him dropping off initially, then driving down on the slant quickly once the ball comes out, breaking up the play.

Against George Pickens, he’s aligned tight, carries the slant to the middle and makes a nice play when the ball arrives.

He was in zone a lot, but he showed some nice things when in man coverage. On this rep against Davante Adams, he lines up tight to the line and stays in great position through the stutter-and-go from Adams, giving the QB nowhere to go with the ball.

So what’s the verdict on Samuel?

He’s a smart, instinctive player with good coverage skills, both in zone and man. His size (and usage numbers) suggest he is primarily an outside corner (88.9% of his snaps in 2024 came at outside corner, per PFF).

I have a couple pretty big concerns in terms of the Packers. One of them is his recent injury history. He only played 4 games in 2024, due to “Stinger symptoms” in his shoulders (per Daniel Popper). In the article by Popper, Samuel says that it’s an ailment he was “born with”. Do the Packers want to spend big money on an undersized cornerback who seems likely to have a recurring shoulder issue at age 25?

The other major issue I have is the amount of off-coverage he plays. While Jeff Hafley has shown an ability to effectively adapt his defense to the players he has, it doesn’t take much listening to him talk to understand how he wants to play: He wants to play an aggressive style of defense. More than anything, he wants his corners to play tight and get hands on the receivers.

While there are certainly instances of Samuel playing tight to the line (we saw it in the Davante Adams and George Pickens clips above), there are very few instances of Samuel getting his hands on a receiver to re-route him. I even went back to film from previous seasons with the Chargers to see if he was doing it under the previous regime. While it’s possible that Samuel is able to do that, it doesn’t feel likely. Part of that is due to his size, but part of that is just the way he plays. He has the ability to stay with receivers off the line with his coverage ability, and his quick-trigger downhill allows him to play off and still make plays in front of him.

I didn’t show any clips above (please forgive me), but his lack of size also shows up on run plays to his size. He’ll fight to get off blocks, but he can be taken out of a play pretty easily by a tight end.

The tackling is a minor concern for me. It’s something that will likely pop up occasionally, but it’s not something that I’m as concerned with as others are. Maybe I should be, but his injury history and inability to play press-man are the bigger concerns for me in terms of fit with the Packers defense.

Ultimately, it depends on what the contract may look like. If Samuel is looking for a one-year prove-it deal to drive his market back up, you could do worse than to take a swing on a player like this. But for a long-term, big-money deal? Because of the two major concerns I just went through, I’d advise the Packers to steer clear of that.

Albums listened to: Magic Shoppe – Down the Wych Elm; Emmylou Harris – Wrecking Ball; Newmoon – Temporary Light; Denison Witmer – Anything At All; Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning; Little Big League – These Are Good People; Waxahatchee – American Weekend