Each and every day, it seems like the Green Bay Packers get closer to moving in separate directions with former All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander.
Alexander missed 34 of the last 68 games because of multiple injuries—shoulder, knee, groin. Last year, he also missed one game because of a team-imposed suspension. The player himself said on Monday that he doesn't know if he will be in Green Bay next season.
The financial implications are huge, and that's why there are several potential options for the Packers.
Current situation
Jaire Alexander signed a four-year extension back in 2022. Now, he still has two years left in his deal. Next season, he's slated to make $17.5 million, with a $25.864 million cap hit. In 2026, the cost is $19.5 million, with a $27.864 million cap hit. There's still $2.364 million in dead money with a void year in 2027.
Without any type of guarantee left, it's unlikely that the Packers will agree to keep Alexander with this type of cost. So, let's move to the options.
Keep/restructure/paycut
If the Packers want to have Jaire Alexander on the 2025 roster, the most realistic path is that general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball will decide that the player is Worth the contract he was given three years ago. After all, Alexander is still their best cornerback when available.
In this case, the Packers would have the option to leave the contract as it is, or to execute a restructure. The latter would keep the $17.5 million salary, but with a lower cap hit in 2025—and higher in 2026 and 2027.
The most logical option for the Packers would be to ask for Jaire to take a real paycut, reducing both his earning and the cap hit. This scenario seems pretty unlikely, though, unless Alexander realizes that his market is not hot outside of Green Bay.
Release
Jaire Alexander being cut sounds like the most likely scenario at this point. If it happens, the Packers would again have multiple options.
The first one is a normal release. In this case, the Packers would have $18.1 million in dead money—because of signing and restructure bonuses already paid that haven't hit the cap yet. It would also mean $6.838 million of cap savings in 2025, but also $27.376 million in 2026 and $2.364 million in 2027.
The other option would be releasing Alexander with a post-June 1st designation. In this case, the dead money in 2025 would only be $7.9 million, with $17.1 million in cap savings. However, the cap space wouldn't be added until June, and the additional $10.2 million dead money would hit in 2026.
The Packers are in a much more comfortable cap situation than they were two, three years ago, so the post-June 1st designation might not be an attractive option, unless Gutekunst wants to be super aggressive in free agency and with extensions.
Jaire is still hurt. If he can't pass a physical before being released, the Packers would have an additional cost of $1.23 million as injury protection. It has been reported that Alexander would have a shot at playing in the Super Bowl, though, so it probably won't be the case.
Trade
It's possible that the Packers find someone willing to pay for Jaire Alexander, even though it's hard to have a significant trade market after so many injuries. At best, Green Bay would be able to get a fifth-round pick, and that's optimistic.
In terms of cap implications, it doesn't change much compared to a release. The numbers before and after June 1st are the same, with the exception that a team can't apply a post-June 1st designation in a trade. Therefore, the post-June 1st numbers would only apply if the trade is actually executed later, which would also postpone the compensation—it wouldn't be possible to include 2025 draft picks, for example.
Besides the compensation, the best factor of this option is that the Packers would decide Alexander’s destination. It would avoid a scenario of the defender going to an NFC North rival, for instance, something that has been frequent for players cut by Green Bay.
Jaire Alexander had a great run with the Packers, and played at a high level for multiple seasons. Cornerback is a volatile position, though, and regression might come fast. The partnership is likely coming to an end, and it might be just a matter of how it will happen.
