It doesn’t feel like Jaire Alexander will be on the Green Bay Packers by the regular season. But if quarterback Jordan Love could decide the outcome of the situation, the former All-Pro cornerback would be around much longer. Talking to Kay Adams, Love expressed his feelings and how important Alexander is to the team.
“I need to reach out to Ja, see what the deal is. Ja, he has his own world going on. I’m going to let him handle his own business and see what’s going on. But that’s my guy right there,” Love said on the Up and Adams Show. “He’s definitely a player we need back. Just the play style he plays with, who he is on the field. I mean, that’s a guy we need to have around. So, we’ll see what happens.”
Besides the production on the field, Love stressed how impactful Jaire is as a leader.
“Locker room wise, he is a character. You never know what you’re gonna get with Ja. He’s a guy who interacts with everybody on the team, and he jokes around, but he also has that serious side to him, a competitor,” Love added. “The player on the field is a whole another area that we would be losing if we didn’t have him. I’m hoping Ja is still there with us. We’ll see, but that’s my guy right there.”
Why the Packers want to go in another direction
Even though Jordan Love has a fair point about Alexander’s impact on the field, general manager Brian Gutekunst’s decision goes well beyond that. First, the cornerback missed 34 of the last 68 games because of multiple injuries.
Moreover, Alexander is slated to make $17.5 million in 2025 and $19.5 million in 2026, but none of that is guaranteed. Ideally, the Packers still want to trade him to get some type of compensation.
“We invested a lot in Jaire and want to make sure, if he’s not gonna be on our football team helping us win games, that we get something back for that investment,” Gutekunst said. “So we’ll see where it goes.”
Jaire Alexander was Brian Gutekunst’s first draft pick as a general manager back in 2018. It’s not an easy decision, because it will make cornerback an even more pressing need in the draft. But the combination of money and lack of availability makes the situation much more complex.
