When the Green Bay Packers get to the 2025 NFL offseason, they will have to decide what to do with two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander. According to at least one pundit, it’s time to “end the Alexander era.” Throughout his seven seasons with the Packers, Alexander, the team’s 2018 first-round selection, has excelled defensively, making the Pro Bowl and being named to the second team All-Pro in 2020 and 2022. With a $23.49 million cap hit on a four-year, $84 million contract, he is also one of the team’s highest-paid players and the second-highest-paid cornerback in the NFL in terms of value each year. However, the 27-year-old cornerback has shown that a healthy Alexander is worth the cost has struggled to stay on the field in three of the past four seasons, including in 2024.
Due to a shoulder ailment, Alexander missed all but four of the 2021 season. After that, he missed nine games in 2023 due to shoulder and back problems, and he missed one more game while on a one-week ban. He has already missed seven more games in 15 weeks of 2024 due to quadriceps, groin, and knee problems.Although Alexander’s contract is valid until the 2026 campaign, Forbes’ Rob Reischel predicts the Packers will sever connections with Alexander after the end of the 2024 season because he feels it’s time for general manager Brian Gutekunst to “cut his losses.”
“The process isn’t working,” Reischel wrote on December 13. “It hasn’t worked in nearly four years. And when the offseason arrives, Green Bay needs to end the Alexander era.”
Reischel is not the only member of the Packers media community who has thought about what the team should do with its top cornerback who is plagued by injuries. In answer to a recent mailbag query from a reader, Pete Dougherty, a columnist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and PackersNews, also discussed the likelihood that the Packers will let go of Alexander in 2025. In his December 13 mailbag, Dougherty said, “I went into the research [about Alexander’s situation] thinking they’ll very likely cut Alexander, but I now think the odds are better than 50-50 they won’t.”
Although Dougherty brought up similar concerns about Alexander, saying that his injury history makes it “very strongly” to move on, he also discussed the Packers’ current cornerback problems that aren’t related to Alexander’s availability. While injuries and youth have forced Keisean Nixon to play more outside than in the slot, where he usually starts, Eric Stokes has deteriorated rather than improved as a healthy member of the defence in 2024.The idea is that, even without Alexander, the Packers will face enough difficulties trying to strengthen their secondary in 2025. The team could be able to save cap space by cutting him, but trying to replace him could come with risks.
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