It would be very surprising if the Packers do not get something in return for Alexander.

Since the rumblings began that Jaire Alexander could be on his way out of Green Bay, starting with his unusual comments (although maybe not by his standards) on locker clean out day, Packers fans have been repeatedly told why the two-time All-Pro does not have much, if any, trade value.

But there are also plenty of reasons why he does.

If Alexander was cut ahead of free agency, he would instantly be the best cornerback on the market. There has been a lot of talk about his contract, and why that might be prohibitive, but it is really not that bad.

An acquiring team would owe Alexander just over $16m this year and $18m next year, and none of it would be guaranteed. Ian Rapoport, when reporting that the Packers had held conversations with other teams about Alexander, called his contract “very tradable”.

It is a weak free agent class overall and is not especially strong at the cornerback position either. The salary cap just ballooned again.

DJ Reed, Charvarius Ward, Byron Murphy, Carlton Davis and Asante Samuel Jr are projected to get paid between $14m and $18m a year according to PFF. Some of those deals will come with large signing bonuses and guarantees.

Alexander’s average PFF grade throughout his career is 77.1. Reed’s is 73.8, Ward’s is 70.3, Davis’ is 67.4, Samuel’s is 65.6, and Murphy’s is 61.65. He was also the highest-graded corner out of all of them last year, in what for him was a down year.

Given the money that is about to be handed out to the players listed above, are you telling me a team would not take on $37m non-guaranteed over two years for a player who is better than all of them?

The 28-year-old was ranked as the 10th best corner in coverage in the NFL last year, only eight NFL teams had a corner with a better coverage grade. Alexander would immediately be the best cornerback on the majority of teams in the league if he was traded.

Even if his slated salary is higher than teams would like, there is so much cap space across the league that teams are not going to be able to sign enough good players to spend it on.

Teams with cap space to burn are not going to quibble over what may or may not be a slight overpay, especially when they can get out of the deal at any time with no dead cap hit.

There is a notion that a team acquiring Alexander would have to negotiate a new contract with him, but that seems to be confusing this situation for one where the reason a player is available is because he wants a new deal and his current team does not want to pay him.

As far as we know, that is not the case here. If Alexander ends up signing a new contract after  a trade, that deal is likely to be more palatable for the team, not less. It could lower his cap hit over the two seasons and give him more guaranteed money, for example.

But even if Alexander refuses to renegotiate because he prefers his current deal, as previously mentioned, his contract is not that bad as it is.

Another factor going in Green Bay’s favor is that this deal essentially has no deadline.

The Packers do not have to cut Alexander essentially at any point. They do not need the cap space they would save by releasing him, and his contract has no roster bonus which could otherwise have forced them to make a decision before it kicked in.

It has not been reported that Alexander has requested a trade, so there is no pressure being put on the team from his end. The only potential self-imposed deadline could be training camp, if the Packers decide they do not want to deal with the situation anymore at that point.

Green Bay holds all the cards here, and as free agency begins and players go off the board, teams who need a corner and are left on the outside looking in could get desperate and be willing to talk.

General manager Brian Gutekunst has also done an excellent job over the years of getting something for a player, even when they had done nothing in the league.

Since he took over in 2018, he has picked up draft compensation for Rasul Douglas, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Brett Hundley, Trevor Davis, Reggie Gilbert, Ty Montgomery, Justin McCray, Cole Van Lanen, Ka’Dar Hollman and Preston Smith.

He also squeezed everything he could out of the Davante Adams and Aaron Rodgers trades, even though it was clear neither of them was ever playing for the Packers again. With the Rodgers deal in particular, he picked up significantly more capital than many thought possible.

There is a recent trade which Gutekunst could use as an aiming point in negotiations, which is the Marshon Lattimore deal. He was traded to the Commanders at the deadline last year along with a fifth-round pick for a third, a fourth and a sixth-round pick.

He is not as good a player as Alexander, his average career PFF grade is 69.3, he is a touch older, and has similarly had injury issues, playing on average one game a year more than Alexander.

In fact, Lattimore was injured at the time he was traded, missing the first six games of his Washington tenure, finally making his debut in week 15.

The contract being taken on is essentially identical, although Lattimore had two-and-a-half years left on his deal at the time of the trade, more than Alexander’s two, but as mentioned, Lattimore then missed most of the second half of the season anyway.

It is not expected that Alexander will yield as much of a return as Lattimore did in that trade, but it could give Gutekunst somewhere to start the negotiations.

A logical case can certainly be made as to why in a vacuum, a general manager of an unnamed team would not want to give up draft capital for Alexander, but these decisions are not made in a vacuum.

People are trying to save their jobs or take risks to push their team over the top, it just takes one, and Gutekunst has shown if there is one, he will get something from them.

Someone will want Jaire Alexander on their team and be willing to give something up to get him, knowing the Packers do not have to release him at all.

It might not be a big haul. The ceiling is probably a third-round pick, potentially giving a day three pick back, like they did when trading Rasul Douglas, but it would be pretty surprising if none of the other 31 teams are willing to give up something for Alexander, and Green Bay simply cuts him loose.