Paul Bretl | 6/10/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After releasing cornerback Jaire Alexander on Monday, Packers’ general manager Brian Gutekunst met with reporters during Tuesday’s minicamp practice to answer questions about the roster move.
“Really appreciative of what Jaire gave our organization,” Gutekunst began by saying. “Obviously he was a great player. Always tough to see those guys move on, but it’s kind of part of the business. We wish him well. He’ll be missed.”
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While Alexander not being a member of the Packers for the 2025 season was always the expected outcome, it obviously took some time to get to this point. But Gutekunst’s reasoning behind this ultimate decision seemed to be pretty straightforward: Alexander’s contract value relative to the number of games he had played in recent seasons didn’t align.
Over the last four seasons, Alexander has appeared in only 34 out of a possible 68 games during that span. This includes playing in just seven games in each of the last two seasons. But contract-wise, Alexander was due a base salary of $16.15 million this season, and his cap hit of $24.63 million was the third-largest on the team.
“I think over the last four years, there’s been a lot of games missed,” Gutekunst said. “I just think for what that amount of money is, I think that’s a lot to pay for a guy who hasn’t been able to get on the field. Again, it’s not his fault. It’s just something that kind of transpired, so we just kind of were looking for something different.”
When on the field, Alexander has still played at a high level. During the 2020 and 2022 seasons, he was an All-Pro. Before suffering a knee injury in Week 8 of last season against Jacksonville, Alexander had allowed a completion rate of just 56% on 25 targets with a pick-six and three pass breakups.
Gutekunst and the Packers did entertain the idea of trading Alexander earlier this offseason, but nothing ever came to fruition. That largely goes back to Alexander’s deal that the new team would have to inherit and the uncertainty around his availability.
It was also reported by The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman that the Packers had offered to restructure Alexander’s deal, but the two sides were unable to agree to terms, and it’s not known how much negotiating took place.
By releasing Alexander, he will leave behind a $17.04 million dead cap hit that the Packers will have to absorb. According to Tom Silverstein, Green Bay has chosen to take on that entire dead cap amount this season, rather than spreading the dead cap hit out between the 2025 and 2026 seasons, so Alexander’s contract will not be on the books next season, providing the Packers with added cap flexibility at that time.
“I think as we went through it, we went through a lot of different angles that might be right for the club, and this is kind of where we ended up,” Gutekunst said. “Again, it was no bad blood. It was just kind of one of those things where over the last couple years, it hasn’t worked out exactly like we’d wanted to, through no fault of anybody, just the injuries kind of took some games away from him.”
Without Alexander, the Packers have their share of unknowns at the cornerback position. At the top of the depth chart is Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs, and Carrington Valentine. While beyond that trio, there is very little experience.
Of the other seven cornerbacks on the roster, Isaiah Dunn’s 116 career defensive snaps are the fourth-most on the team, and none of those seven cornerbacks played an NFL snap in 2024. But even with that being the case, as Gutekunst’s offseason moves–or lack thereof–illustrate, he remains bullish in this group.
“Those guys have got to come through, right?,” Gutekunst said of the cornerback room. “I think that’s like every team. Some guys don’t even have two. We’ve got three really good starting corners that we really like quite a bit. Again, I think we have more depth than most. But in those back, some of those guys are young guys who haven’t played a lot of football, but that’s usually the case. I’m excited to see, get those guys opportunities and see what they can do.”