How Jaire Alexander's future impacts the Packers' draft plans at cornerback

New York Times

16-04-2025

Jaire Alexander is still a Green Bay Packer eight days before the NFL Draft.
General manager Brian Gutekunst addressed the matter at the NFL owners' meetings last month. While the Packers don't absolutely need Alexander's future resolved by the draft, it would be helpful, presumably, for the team to have more clarity on its cornerback group entering the first round.
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The Packers have been open to trading their two-time All-Pro cornerback, but Gutekunst left the door open for Alexander to remain a Packer if a trade doesn't materialize. So far, it hasn't.
If it stays that way for the next eight days, it's possible a team that doesn't get their desired cornerback(s) in the draft is then willing to pony up for Alexander afterward. But if Alexander remains on the roster through the draft, Gutekunst might give up on trading him since any draft compensation he'd recoup would be for 2026.
At that point, it would make sense to move forward with Alexander on the team and hope he stays healthy, which has been a challenge for the 28-year-old who has missed 20 games combined over the last two seasons because of four different injuries. There's no denying he's elite when healthy, though, and the Packers would have to cross their fingers while making sure there's no rift between player and team after the latter's public willingness to trade the former.
'We invested a lot in Jaire and want to make sure, if he's not gonna be on our football team helping us win games, that we get something back for that investment,' Gutekunst said at the owners' meetings. 'So we'll see where it goes.'
That doesn't sound like a general manager willing to release Alexander if a trade doesn't happen.
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According to Over The Cap, both releasing and trading Alexander before June 1 would free up about $7.6 million in cap space. Doing either after June 1 would free up about $17.1 million.
Alexander, who the Packers made the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history in 2022 with a $21 million average annual salary (he's now fifth-highest-paid), has the third-highest cap hit on the team for 2025 behind quarterback Jordan Love and defensive end Rashan Gary. He's arguably being paid too much for how often he's been available, but the Packers' best option may be just to keep him at that salary if Alexander isn't willing to take a pay cut, and the team doesn't want to release him for only more cap space in return.
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If the Packers trade him before next Thursday, cornerback might become a need as early as Round 1. Parting with Alexander would leave the Packers with three returning players at the position with regular season NFL experience on defense — Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine. Nixon has one season of outside cornerback experience, though Gutekunst said Nixon played 'really, really well' on the outside in 2024. Hobbs is more of a nickel who the Packers think can play outside.
'Whenever we can get versatile players on our team, I think that's a huge advantage for us because it gives you a lot of flexibility,' head coach Matt LaFleur said of Hobbs at the owners' meetings. 'Injuries are part of our game and how you pivot and adjust, I think, is a big deal. I just know that a lot of people just view him as a nickel. Well, we think he can play on the outside and play on the perimeter. I just love the guy's mentality. I love how he plays the game. He plays it the right way. He's tough, he's competitive and he brings an edge.'
Valentine has shown promise on the outside over sporadic playing time in his first two seasons, too.
Alexander didn't start right away after the Packers drafted him No. 18 in 2018, so a first-round cornerback isn't off the table even if it seems Nixon and Hobbs will start on the outside. Competition is never bad, especially when Nixon and Hobbs aren't exactly superstars at outside cornerback, so maybe a rookie first-rounder pushes them to be better or even unseats one himself. There are likely to be injuries, too, so depth at a position the Packers currently have very little of is paramount. And all three of the aforementioned players essentially have two years remaining on their contracts (Nixon and Valentine literally do, while Hobbs' four-year deal is basically a two-year contract with an out before Year 3), so now might be a good time to start backloading the group.
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If the Packers don't trade Alexander before draft day and Gutekunst decides the deadline to do so has passed, cornerback remains a need but probably not as early as the first round. The backloading aspect from the first scenario still stands, since Alexander likely wouldn't be a Packer for the long term if he stays. It still probably wouldn't be wise for a team trying to win now to spend a first-round pick at a group featuring Nixon, Hobbs, Valentine and one of the best in the game when he's healthy.
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That would narrow down the Packers' most likely first-round targets to defensive line and wide receiver. Cornerback would still be a need as early as Day 2, not only for the backloading aspect if more than one of the aforementioned four leave in the next year or two, but also because of who the Packers lost from their 2024 cornerback group.
Eric Stokes, Robert Rochell and Corey Ballentine all signed elsewhere in free agency, so the Packers' depth at the position features Isaiah Dunn, Kamal Hadden, Kaleb Hayes and Kalen King. Dunn played 114 defensive snaps as a rookie for the Jets in 2021 but has been out of the league for the last two seasons. None of the other three have played a defensive snap in their careers.
So as the NFL Draft descends on Green Bay next week, Alexander's future remains cloudy. The Packers are likely going to draft a cornerback, but when they do might depend on what transpires over the next eight days with one of their most accomplished players.