GREEN BAY – Packers kickoff returner Keisean Nixon has been named first-team All-Pro, with cornerback Jaire Alexander earning a second-team selection, as determined by a vote of 50 media members of the Associated Press.
Nixon, who was one of 16 first-time selections, received 44 of 50 first-place votes for kickoff returner. His 136 total points bested Minnesota's Kene Nwangwu, who made the second team with 27 points. Alexander (62 points) received 16 first-place votes, finishing third at corner behind Sauce Gardner (136, 43) and Patrick Surtain (79, 20).
This was the first year for the AP's new voting system. Voters chose a first team and a second team. First-team votes are worth three points, second-team votes are worth one.
The 25-year-old Nixon finished the season with a league-leading 1,009 yards on kickoff returns, becoming just the third player in team history to lead the NFL in the category (Al Carmichael in 1956 and 1957, Dave Hampton in 1971). He was just fourth player since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to post 1,000-plus yards on 35 or fewer kickoff returns, joining Cordarrelle Patterson (2015, 2020), Joe McKnight (2011) and Alvin Haymond (1970).
Nixon was named the NFL Special Teams Player of Week 17 after returning a kickoff 105 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Packers' 41-17 win over Minnesota, the first kickoff return TD by a Packer since Randall Cobb's in the 2011 opener vs. New Orleans. It was the third-longest kickoff return in team history behind Cobb's 108-yarder and Carmichael's 106-yard TD vs. Chicago on Oct. 7, 1956.
Nixon led the NFL in kickoff returns of 50-plus yards (five, no other player with more than two) and 30-plus yards (11), the most by a Packer in both categories since 2000. His average of 28.83 yards per kickoff return was second in the NFL this season and the best single-season mark in franchise history among players with 30-plus kickoff returns.
For Alexander, this marks the second time he's been named second-team All-Pro by the AP (2020). The fifth-year cornerback led Green Bay with 14 passes defensed and a career-high five interceptions (tied for fifth in the NFL). Alexander started 16 games, recording 56 tackles (41 solo), four tackles for a loss.
