GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The ball had not even fallen into Keisean Nixon’s hands yet, and the crowd at Lambeau Field roared with anticipation.
Nixon heard it.
“Turned me up,” he said. “I knew I had to make a play.”
His mom felt it.
All bundled up in the stands for her first cold-weather game Monday night when the Green Bay Packers hosted the Los Angeles Rams -- and her first game of any kind in Green Bay -- Dwanique experienced something new.
“I’d never been in weather that cold,” she told ESPN.com this week. “But what really gave me chills -- like on TV you can tell the fans are cheering when he’s returning kickoffs -- was to sit there and witness the stadium just erupt. Not even when he was running it. It was like the moment he caught the ball, the stadium was going crazy. I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my baby.’”
Fifty-two yards later, Nixon was mobbed by his teammates on the Packers’ sideline late in the third quarter after another electric kickoff return -- an aspect of the game that, prior to Nixon's arrival, had been a revolving door of players the Packers just hoped wouldn’t do anything to hurt them.
5️⃣2️⃣ yards on the kickoff return for @keiseannixon! #LARvsGB | #GoPackGo
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 20, 2022
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/75ICF8P4gE
It was Nixon’s third kickoff return this season of 50-plus yards, most in the NFL. Only one other player in the league has even two such returns.
And he’s been doing it only since Week 6. A month after that -- and following one too many fumbles by Amari Rodgers -- Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia added punt returns to Nixon’s job description. Before all that, he was a core special teams player charged with blocking and tackling, and a backup cornerback on defense.
Still, it was enough to earn him a spot as a Pro Bowl alternate among return specialists even though the Packers (5-8) are on the brink of playoff elimination heading into Sunday’s Christmas game at the Miami Dolphins (1 p.m. ET, Fox). And more noticeably, it has been enough to earn respect from other teams.
“In all my 18 years, I’ve never once until tonight seen an opposing team’s kicker kick away from one of our returners on purpose,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after Monday night’s game. “That’s fun. That’s pretty incredible.”
That happened on the opening kickoff of the second half when the Rams pooched it to Corey Ballentine. To that point, Nixon had already returned a kickoff 49 yards that was called back because of a holding penalty.
“Big kudos to Rich and his staff and, obviously, Keisean,” Rodgers said. “He’s been a big difference-maker for us. You hate to do the what-ifs and look-backs, but there’s definitely some -- the ways that certain players are playing for us -- that you wonder how it would have been if things had been a little different at the start of the season.”
NIXON DOES NOT allow himself to wonder. He’s used to waiting his turn. He was a standout kickoff returner at Arizona Western -- a junior college that disbanded its football team two years after he transferred to South Carolina. In one Arizona Western game, he had 316 punt return yards, including touchdowns on back-to-back returns, while also excelling as a defensive back.
However, South Carolina rarely used him as a returner. In two seasons, he had three total kickoff returns.
It was more of the same after he signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He didn’t return a kick in his first three NFL seasons but was a regular on the kick coverage teams and a blocker on the return teams. He played 692 special teams snaps for the Raiders but just 273 snaps on defense from 2019 to 2021. He has already played more defensive snaps this season (282) with the Packers than in his entire career with the Raiders, plus another 216 special teams plays.
The Packers signed him in March to a one-year contract with the minimum base salary of $965,000. It had no guarantees, and the only bonus was $7,670 for attending the offseason program.
His most significant action early in the season came at Tampa Bay in Week 3, when he replaced cornerback Jaire Alexander (who left with a groin injury). Nixon played 57 of the 65 defensive snaps, recorded a career-high six tackles (five of them solo) and forced a fumble early in the third quarter that the Packers recovered. It was enough to keep him in the lineup the next week against the Patriots when Alexander remained out. Weeks later, he became a regular fixture in the secondary as the nickel cornerback.
At the same time, he finally got his first crack at the punt return job in Week 10 after another Amari Rodgers fumble against the Cowboys. Before that game, Nixon had never returned a punt at Arizona Western, South Carolina or in the NFL. After that game, the Packers cut Rodgers and handed Nixon the job.
“You never know what’s going on in the building,” Nixon said when asked why it took so long for him to get the return jobs. “It’s bigger than me. They didn’t know. S---, I didn’t know. Excuse my language, but I didn’t really know either. It’s a confidence thing. Once they gave me an opp[ortunity], I’m confident and just make plays now. Once you’re confident as a player, sky’s the limit.”
In addition to his 25.4-yard kickoff return average, he has a 15.3-yard average on six punt returns. Both averages are second in the NFL.
“Probably going to get criticized for not playing him early, and that’s fair,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We should have had him in there earlier and we didn’t. I don’t think we knew what we had. He's proven what he brings to the table. I can’t say enough about what he brings to this team.”
A DAY AFTER the Rams game, LaFleur mentioned in a longer answer about Nixon that it was the first game his mom had seen him play in person since he signed with the Packers.
He never explained why.
Dwanique had to be in Las Vegas, where she works as a project manager for a utility company, to undergo treatment for breast cancer. She was diagnosed in April, and as soon as she received word that it was okay to travel, she came to Green Bay.
“I was shooting for the Miami game, but when I got the clearance, I was like, 'I’d rather come to Lambeau,'” she said. “I had been to Miami, but I had never been to Lambeau.”
She turned 52 on Saturday, two days before the Rams game.
By the time she got home to Vegas at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, she was exhausted but also planning the next trip to see her son.
“I’m going to watch the game here on Christmas on TV, and then I’ll watch the [New Year's Day] Minnesota game,” she said. “I’m speaking into existence that they will beat Miami, they will beat Minnesota, and I’m going to see if my body can take it to go back to Lambeau for the Lions game because if they win the next two, I know the Lions game is going to be crazy.”
Nixon’s face lit up when asked about his mom. It was her face that reminded him of what’s important just before he took the field on Monday night.
“I knew where she was in the stands,” Nixon said. “She was behind our bench. Before my first return, I found her and I was looking right at her.
“That meant everything to me. You only get one mom in this life. That’s my world and my heart. I’ve got to take care of her, and I’ve got to make plays for her.”