Buccaneers Urged to Sign $84 Million All-Pro CB From NFC North After Shocking Release

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have drafted 2 cornerbacks in the 2025 NFL draft — and 2 really good ones at that — but that doesn’t mean they should bet their season on a couple of rookies.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on June 9 that there’s a 2-time NFL All-Pro cornerback on the market after he broke news the Green Bay Packers were prepared to release Jaire Alexander.

Alexander might be the perfect fit for the Buccaneers, who struggled mightily in the secondary in 2024.

“The #Packers are releasing star CB Jaire Alexander today, sources say,” Rapoport wrote on his official X account. “The #Packers and Jaire Alexander agreed to explore a potential trade this spring, while a restructured contract was also discussed. In the end, Green Bay and Alexander move on with a clean break.”

Alexander is only 28 years old and should still have some great years ahead of him — the only question is whether or not he wants to continue to try and be a top level NFL player. Which isn’t a certainty by any means.

Alexander Signed One of NFL’s Richest CB Deals

Alexander signed a 4-year, $84 million contract extension in March 2022 and had 2 seasons and $37 million left on that deal. In relative terms, Alexander’s deal only included $30 million in guaranteed money and he ended up collecting

One problem for any team making a trade for Alexander is his health — he’s only played 14 games over the last 2 seasons and missed 20 games due to injuries and suspensions. Alexander had 2 interceptions in 7 games in 2024 and missed the final 8 games of the season and the playoffs after arthroscopic knee surgery.

When Alexander has been healthy, he’s been one of the NFL’s elite cornerbacks. He was drafted in the first round (No. 18 overall) of the 2018 NFL draft out of Louisville. Alexander  had 41 pass deflections through his first 3 seasons, including a career high 17 pass deflections in 2021.

For as good as Alexander has been in the regular season, he’s been even better in the playoffs. In 7 career playoff games, Alexander has 28 tackles, 3 interceptions and 5 pass deflections.

Career Defined by Bizarre Pregame Incident

For as good as Alexander has been, it’s hard to say his career hasn’t been defined by a bizarre pre-game incident on the road against the Carolina Panthers in Week 16 of the 2023 regular season.

That was when Alexander, a Charlotte native, came out for the pregame coin toss despite not being elected a team captain and made the call of “tails” for the toss and won but said the Packers wanted to “play defense” — teams can only elect to receive the kickoff, defer or say which side of the field they want to defend.

“It’s only suiting,” Alexander said of declaring himself a team captain for the game. “I don’t think Coach knew I was from Charlotte, so …”

Alexander was suspended by the Packers for one game for his actions.

The suspension came after Alexander elected to forgo a $700,000 bonus by skipping offseason workouts with the team. That came with some more out-of-the-box reasoning by Alexander.

“When Alexander reported for the team’s mandatory minicamp in June, he said he preferred to be in Green Bay when no one else was around the team facility, so he had stayed in town after last season but then left when the voluntary workouts began in April,” ESPN’s Rob Demovsky wrote in 2023.