
Former Wisconsin wide receiver transfers to play for Phil Longo
Former Wisconsin wide receiver transfers to play for Phil Longo
Wisconsin transfer wide receiver Grady O'Neill committed to Sam Houston State on Wednesday.
O'Neill is now the fourth former Badger to join Sam Houston State this offseason. That growing number is no coincidence: Bearkats head coach K.C. Keeler left for the Temple job after an impressive 9-3 2024 regular season, opening the door for the program to hire Phil Longo -- Wisconsin's recently fired offensive coordinator.
Other now-former Badgers off to play for Longo at Sam Houston State are redshirt freshman quarterback Mabrey Mettauer, redshirt sophomore cornerback Jace Arnold and class of 2025 quarterback Landyn Locke.
Sam Houston State is Longo's first head coaching job since he led La Salle from 2004-05. He was previously the Bearkats' offensive coordinator from 2014-16 before making the jump to the Power Four level, first at Ole Miss (2017-18), then at North Carolina (2019-22) and finally at Wisconsin (2023-24). Wisconsin fired the veteran coordinator in mid-November last season after a home loss to Oregon. He was hired at Sam Houston State just a month later.
O'Neill joins Longo with the Bearkats after three years at Wisconsin. He originally joined the program as a preferred walk-on in 2022, then stuck around when Luke Fickell took over in November of that year. O'Neill appeared in just three games during his Wisconsin career, all on special teams during the 2024 season.
He joins Sam Houston State as a redshirt junior with two years of eligibility remaining.
Wisconsin enters 2025 with returning contributors Trech Kekahuna and Vinny Anthony, plus transfers Mark Hamper (Idaho) and Jayden Ballard (Ohio State) set to lead its wide receiver room. The group's play will be a major story as new coordinator Jeff Grimes returns the program to its pro-style roots, a significant departure from Longo's air raid approach.
Wisconsin averaged just 23.5 and 22.6 points per game in 2023 and 2024, respectively, with Longo leading the offense. The unit will need to take a major step forward in 2025 if the Badgers are to overcome a gauntlet schedule and return to bowl eligibility.
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New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
Packers are taking calculated risk in releasing cornerback Jaire Alexander
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers will free up more than $17.1 million in cap space in 2025 by releasing cornerback Jaire Alexander, according to Over The Cap, and have more than $46 million available in cap space. That's the third-biggest number in the NFL. What they do with the influx of money in the near future, if anything, remains to be seen. An even more glaring uncertainty is whether the cornerbacks left on the roster are good enough. Not good enough to start in the NFL, but good enough to help the Packers win a Super Bowl. After all, that's what general manager Brian Gutekunst thinks it's time his team competes for in 2025. Doing so will be harder without Alexander, though it became no guarantee in recent years that he would be on the field. That's a big reason why Gutekunst is releasing the first player he drafted after becoming Packers GM back in 2018. Alexander, 28, made the All-Pro second team both before and after a significant shoulder injury that sidelined him 13 games in 2021. His first honor came in 2020, followed by another in 2022 after the Packers made him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history at the time, with an extension worth $21 million annually, in March of that year. Advertisement However, over the last two seasons, 2023 and 2024, Alexander missed 20 games with four different injuries. The Packers looked to trade him and hopefully recoup something for their investment, but that didn't pan out. They also offered Alexander a restructured contract, but the sides couldn't agree on that, either. So while Alexander is the Packers' best cornerback if healthy, that became too big an 'if' for the team to keep him at a price Alexander's side desired. Could they have retained one of their best players of the last decade, even at full price? Technically, yes. Alexander's release frees up a boatload of cap space, but the Packers weren't exactly strapped for cap this year. They ranked 12th in the NFL with about $29 million in cap space available, according to OTC, before the move. Alexander had a $16.15 million base salary, $650,000 per-game roster bonuses and a $700,000 workout bonus. Financially, the move matters more for 2026. It frees up $19.5 million in cap for next year, per OTC, and the Packers were about $10 million over the cap in 2026. No matter the financial impact on both this year and next, the Packers will proceed into a season that carries heightened urgency featuring Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine as their top three outside cornerbacks. That seems like a comparable risk to keeping Alexander on even a slightly reduced contract. 'I love 2-3 to death. That's my boy,' Nixon said last week of Alexander. 'If he comes back and he's here, we'd love to have him. I love to play with Jaire. That's just what it is since I've been here. Jaire pushed me to be really who I am because it's always friendly competition between me and him. Whatever happens, happens. We don't have control over that. If he's here, we're gonna rock out. If he's not, we're still gonna rock out. That's just how it goes.' Advertisement The Packers will rock out without him in a division with two reigning first-team All-Pro receivers, Minnesota's Justin Jefferson and Detroit's Amon-Ra St. Brown. And they'll also rock out without a premium cornerback in the pipeline, as the Packers didn't draft one until the seventh round in Tulane's Micah Robinson. Nixon dubbed himself 'CB1' shortly after the season ended, but can he really lock down opposing No. 1 wide receivers consistently? Gutekunst seemed to think he's capable after Nixon's first season playing primarily on the outside in 2024. 'I think he played really, really well,' the GM said in February. 'I think he really fit what (defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley) was trying to do. First of all, he's an outstanding competitor. I didn't blink when we asked him to do that, but I just think his athleticism and his ability … with his eyes and his ability to tackle served us well out there. For me, he may not have the length that some of those guys on the outside have, but his awareness and ball skills make up for that.' Hobbs was more of a nickel with the Raiders, but the Packers inked him to a four-year deal worth $12 million annually in free agency to play both inside and outside. In Green Bay's base defense during voluntary OTA practices open to reporters, it has been Hobbs opposite Nixon on the outside to start. 'He's had a lot of success inside and I thought his tape outside was equally as good,' Hafley said this offseason of Hobbs. 'He is competitive, he's tough, he is physical. He plays the game fast. You can tell he loves it. It just jumps off the tape.' Valentine is technically the most traditional outside corner of the three and he's flashed over his first two seasons in the NFL, but his playing time has come inconsistently. Trotting out that top three at cornerback figures to put more pressure on Green Bay's pass rush, which was inconsistent last season and didn't add any clear-cut Day 1 contributors in the offseason. Gutekunst opted rather to trust that the likes of Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark and Lukas Van Ness will be better, which is another calculated gamble for a defense tasked with following up Hafley's impressive debut season with a worthwhile encore. The Packers have grown accustomed to playing without Alexander over the last two years, whether it be from the perspective of their secondary or their pass rush, so doing so again won't necessarily be new. But even if he wasn't always at his best when on the field in 2023 and 2024, a healthy Alexander would have given the Packers the best chance in the long run against the slew of receivers they'll face in 2025. Advertisement In Week 1, St. Brown and the Lions. In Week 2, Terry McLaurin and the Commanders. In Week 4, CeeDee Lamb and the Cowboys. In Week 6, Ja'Marr Chase and the Bengals. In Week 7, Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Cardinals. In Week 8, DK Metcalf and the Steelers. In Week 10, A.J. Brown and the Eagles. In Week 11, Malik Nabers and the Giants. Then St. Brown once more and Jefferson twice down the stretch. For two traditional nickels, even if Nixon impressed on the outside last season and the Packers think Hobbs can do the same, that's a tall task. Hobbs was asked during his introductory press conference about a potential pairing with Nixon, his former Raiders teammate, on the outside. 'Think it'd be legendary,' he said. The Packers better hope it is or those Super Bowl dreams will remain just that.


CBS News
7 hours ago
- CBS News
Packers will release veteran cornerback Jaire Alexander, AP source says
The Green Bay Packers are planning to release veteran cornerback Jaire Alexander, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Packers haven't announced the move yet. NFL Network first reported it. The release would end a seven-year run with the Packers in which Alexander earned two Pro Bowl selections and intercepted 12 passes, though injuries limited his playing time in recent seasons. This move, which is expected to clear about $17 million in cap space, comes as the Packers prepare to open their mandatory minicamp this week. Alexander's future with the Packers had been the subject of much speculation throughout the offseason because of his hefty contract and recent injury history. Alexander had two years remaining on the four-year, $84 million contract extension he signed in May 2022. The 28-year-old Alexander has spent his entire career with the Packers, who selected him out of Louisville with the 18th overall pick in the 2018 draft. Alexander made Pro Bowls in 2020 and 2022, but he has played in only 34 of the Packers' 68 regular-season games over the last four years. Alexander missed two early-season games last year with injuries to his quadriceps and groin. He then missed a Nov. 3 loss to Detroit with a knee injury, returned to play 10 snaps in the Packers' next game against Chicago and then was out for the rest of the season. His unavailability for much of the last few seasons has the Packers believing they can move forward without the player who had remained their best cornerback when healthy. Green Bay's cornerback room also has lost 2021 first-round pick Eric Stokes, who had his own injury issues with the Packers before signing with the Las Vegas Raiders in March. The Packers return Keisean Nixon, a two-time All-Pro kickoff returner who has become more of a factor on defense the last couple of seasons while Alexander has struggled with injuries. Carrington Valentine, a 2023 seventh-round pick, has started 19 games over the last two seasons. The Packers also added former Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs in free agency and drafted Micah Robinson out of Tulane in the seventh round. Alexander was so effective early in his career that the Packers signed him to that big contract with a $30 million signing bonus even after a shoulder injury had limited him to four regular-season games in 2021. Alexander had returned for the Packers' NFC divisional playoff loss to San Francisco during that 2021 season. But the injuries kept coming. He started 16 games and had a career-high five interceptions in 2022 but played just seven regular-season games each of the last two years. Alexander has remained very effective in pass coverage when available. The games he missed were because of injury with one exception. Alexander got suspended for a late-season game in 2023 because of conduct detrimental to the team after he appointed himself captain and participated in the coin toss for a Christmas Eve win at Carolina, his hometown. Before his injuries, Alexander tried to stoke the flames of a rivalry with Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson. When Jefferson had 184 yards and two touchdowns against the Packers in Kevin O'Connell's first game as head coach, Alexander called the wide receiver's performance a fluke. In a later game, Alexander did the griddy — Jefferson's signature dance — after an incomplete pass. Jefferson fired some shots of his own, saying "nobody is really worried" about Alexander, noting that the Packers often gave Alexander safety help over the top to cover him.

Associated Press
8 hours ago
- Associated Press
Packers plan to release veteran cornerback Jaire Alexander, AP source says
The Green Bay Packers are planning to release veteran cornerback Jaire Alexander, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Packers haven't announced the move yet. NFL Network first reported it. The release would end a seven-year run with the Packers in which Alexander earned two Pro Bowl selections and intercepted 12 passes, though injuries limited his playing time in recent seasons. This move, which is expected to clear about $17 million in cap space, comes as the Packers prepare to open their mandatory minicamp this week. Alexander's future with the Packers had been the subject of much speculation throughout the offseason because of his hefty contract and recent injury history. Alexander had two years remaining on the four-year, $84 million contract extension he signed in May 2022. The 28-year-old Alexander has spent his entire career with the Packers, who selected him out of Louisville with the 18th overall pick in the 2018 draft. He made Pro Bowls in 2020 and 2022, but he has played in only 34 of the Packers' 68 regular-season games over the last four years. Alexander missed two early-season games last year with injuries to his quadriceps and groin. He then missed a Nov. 3 loss to Detroit with a knee injury, returned to play 10 snaps in the Packers' next game against Chicago and then was out for the rest of the season. He was so effective early in his career that the Packers signed him to that big contract with a $30 million signing bonus even after a shoulder injury had limited him to four regular-season games in 2021. Alexander had returned for the Packers' NFC divisional playoff loss to San Francisco during that 2021 season. But the injuries kept coming. He started 16 games for the Packers in 2022 but played just seven regular-season games each of the last two years. Alexander has remained very effective in pass coverage when available. The games he missed were because of injury with one exception. Alexander got suspended for a late-season game in 2023 because of conduct detrimental to the team after he appointed himself captain and participated in the coin toss for a Christmas Eve win at Carolina, his hometown. ___ AP NFL: