However, while a healthy Alexander has proven to be worth the investment, the 27-year-old cornerback has failed to stay on the field in three of the last four seasons, including 2024.
Alexander missed all but four games of the 2021 season due to a shoulder issue. He subsequently missed nine games in 2023 due to back and shoulder issues, plus an additional game while serving a one-week ban. Through 15 weeks in 2024, he has missed seven games and counting due to quadriceps, groin, and knee injuries.
While Alexander is signed through the 2026 season, Forbes’ Rob Reischel believes it is time for Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst to “cut his losses” and predicts the team will part ways with Alexander after the 2024 season.
“The process isn’t working,” Reischel stated on December 13. “It hasn’t worked in almost four years. And when the offseason begins, Green Bay must terminate the Alexander era.”
Top Packers Columnist also weighs Jaire. Alexander Reischel is not the only one in the Packers media circle who has considered what the team should do with its injury-prone star cornerback. Pete Dougherty, a Green Bay Press-Gazette and PackersNews columnist, also responded to a reader’s recent mailbag query on the Packers perhaps moving on from Alexander in 2025.
“I went into the research [about Alexander’s situation] thinking they’ll very likely cut Alexander, but I now believe the odds are better than 50-50 they won’t,” Dougherty wrote in his December 13 mailbag.
While Dougherty highlighted similar concerns about Alexander, stating that his injury history “strongly suggests moving on,” he also discussed the Packers’ persistent cornerback woes outside of Alexander’s availability. Eric Stokes has deteriorated rather than returned as a fit member of the defence in 2024, while injuries and youth have forced Keisean Nixon to play more on the outside than in the slot, where he often starts.
The argument is that the Packers will face enough hurdles in improving their secondary by 2025 without moving on from Alexander. While removing him could free up salary space for the team, the difficulties of replacing him could keep them from doing so.
“I’m assuming [the Packers will] sign a veteran CB and draft at least two,” Dougherty said. “But they can’t expect to hit on both picks (if there are two), and there will be growing pains with inexperienced cornerbacks. I could see Gutekunst taking the risk and sticking with Alexander for another season.”
Will the Packers make cornerback a first-round priority?
Regardless of their choice on Alexander, the Packers will most certainly look to the 2025 NFL draft for cornerback reinforcements, but would they prioritize it with their first-round pick? Gutekunst has been down that route several times before.
Earlier in his tenure, Gutekunst traded up nine spots in the first round of the 2018 draft to select Alexander at number 18 overall. The next day, he used the Packers’ No. 45 second-round pick on cornerback Josh Jackson, only one year after the team selected Kevin King with the No. 33 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Neither King nor Jackson received a second contract, but his move for Alexander paid out handsomely.
Gutekunst then made another big shot after letting King go following the 2020 season. With the No. 29 overall pick in 2021, he began his infatuation with Georgia Bulldog defenders by selecting Stokes to be the new perimeter starter opposite Alexander. While injuries would eventually end Stokes’ career with the Packers, he shone as a rookie in 2021, recording one interception, 14 pass breakups, and 55 tackles.
Now, perhaps Gutekunst’s misfortune with Stokes has influenced his draft strategy, but it appears far more likely that he is willing to take another big swing to address one of his roster’s major flaws, if not the most serious. That may imply that the Packers use their first-round pick (projected at No. 27 overall in Week 16) to find a new cornerback.
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