GREEN BAY – Cornerback/returner Keisean Nixon has been named the NFC Special Teams Player of Week 17.
The fourth-year veteran posted a career-long 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter of Sunday's 41-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
It was the first kickoff return TD by a Packer since Randall Cobb's 108-yarder on Sept. 8, 2011, vs. New Orleans, and the third-longest kickoff return in team history behind Cobb and Al Carmichael (106-yard TD vs. Chicago on Oct. 7, 1956).
Nixon, who also had a 93-yard return a week earlier in Miami, is the only Packer to post a 90-plus-yard kickoff return in back-to-back games over the last 45 seasons, according to Elias, and is only the third NFL player to accomplish that feat in back-to-back games in the same season over that time span (Tony Horne, 1999; Byron Hanspard, 1997).
It marked Nixon's seventh consecutive game with 90-plus kickoff return yards on five or fewer returns, the second-longest streak in NFL history behind only Glyn Milburn (eight-game streak in 1996).
Nixon now has a league-best six games this season with 100-plus yards on kickoff returns, tying Dave Hampton (1971) for the most in a season by a Packer (since 1950). His six this season are the most by an NFL player since 2013 (Cordarrelle Patterson, eight; Devin Hester, six).
Nixon leads the league with five kickoff returns of 50-plus yards on the season (no other player has more than two), the most by a Packer in a season since 2000 and the most by an NFL player since Jets WR Andre Roberts in 2018 (six).
Earlier this season, Packers punter Pat O'Donnell also won the weekly award for placing five of his seven punts inside the Tampa Bay 20-yard line during a 14-12 win over the Buccaneers.
