How Alexander, Douglas Became Primetime Players

After intercepting five passes in his first four seasons, Jaire Alexander intercepted five in 2022. Fellow Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas played a role in that success.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 31, 2023 9:29 PM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jaire Alexander was a second-team All-Pro in 2020. The arrival of Rasul Douglas to the Green Bay Packers took his game to even greater heights.

Alexander sustained a serious shoulder injury in Week 4 of the 2021 season. In desperate need of another cornerback to bolster a roster that was good enough to reach the NFC Championship Game in 2020, general manager Brian Gutekunst made one of the all-time great practice-squad raidings by swiping Rasul Douglas from the Cardinals.

Douglas intercepted five passes in just 12 games, starting with the game-saver in an upset win at then-undefeated Arizona.

Alexander took note. Eventually, a bond was forged between a great player and an unexpectedly great player.

“I came up to him and I said, ‘Man, that was a prime-time play,’” Alexander, thinking back to the Arizona game, said last week. “A few weeks later, he catches a pick-six against the Bears, and I said, ‘You’re a prime-time player, and I respect that.’ See, the thing is, is respect. If you play well, you will gain respect. From Rasul, the way he stepped up that year and played, he gained all my respect, so I couldn’t wait to play with him.”

They played together for one game in the 2021 playoffs, then throughout the 2022 season. While the Packers didn’t reach the playoffs, let alone make a run to the Super Bowl, they combined for nine interceptions.

“I couldn’t wait to be on the field with him, because it’s much more enjoyable to play with somebody who you respect their game,” Alexander said. “He had five interceptions. I never had five in my whole entire career, so I’m like, ‘Damn, how you get five?’ I’m asking him like, ‘Yo, what’d you see? What’d you see on this play? How’d you know this was about to happen?’ Through that, we gained a relationship.”

Well, Alexander had five interceptions last season, matching his career total from his previous four seasons.

“Anytime you have a season like Rasul had in 2021, of course, I’m tuned into whatever he’s got for me,” Alexander said after Monday’s training camp practice. “I’m still coachable. I’m the best but I’m still coachable and I still want to learn. So, yeah, he plays a part in that, for sure.”

The bond formed simply enough. With Alexander on the comeback trail, they shared what they knew about each other and each other’s games.

Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas (Photo by Wm. Glasheen/USA Today Sports Images)

“Me and him were studying each other without telling each other,” Douglas said.

That led to Douglas sharing how he studied film. Alexander is a small-picture player. He studies his individual matchups and dominates with talent and superior competitiveness. Douglas is a big-picture player. By knowing everything that’s going on around him and opponent tendencies, he makes game-changing plays by predicting what’s coming.

“We just started talking over film,” Douglas said of their conversations in 2021. “I’d be like, ‘Ja, this is a dig.’ He’d be like, ‘How in the [heck] did you know it was a dig?’ And I’d be like, ‘Bro, he told us the split and this route means that route.’ He’d be like, ‘You need to show me what you mean by that.’ I’d give him a play and then I’d send him 10 other times they did the exact thing from the same formation.

“He watches film different. Ja, he’s a man-to-man guy so he’s just watching whoever he’s going to be guarding. If it’s Justin Jefferson, all he wants on that tape is Justin Jefferson. He’s not watching [Adam] Thielen or nobody else.”

So, Alexander and Douglas shared how they studied. It worked. Last year, they combined for nine interceptions, with two apiece during the four-game winning streak that got them to the brink of the playoffs. They were the only tandem in the NFL in which each player had at least four picks.

“Now, I’m looking at formations; now, he’s studying the receiver more,” Alexander said. “So, we’re able to play off each other, and that’s how you become better as a secondary.”

Along with film study, their communication has improved over time. At one point last season, when Douglas was in the slot, defensive coordinator Joe Barry had Douglas and Alexander line up on the same side of the field as often as possible. Communication was a necessity in determining how they’d handle route combinations.

“We’ve both got those alpha genes but, in a game, it’s all feel,” Douglas said. “If he’s feeling some type of way, we’re going to play it that way. If I’m feeling something, we’re going to play it that way.’”

Said Alexander: “It’s just an understanding of he sees it this way, I see it that way. Let’s combine it and let God handle the rest.”

Entering 2023, Alexander and Douglas are slated to be the starting corners with Keisean Nixon moving into the slot. The communication continues. Even if they’re standing 40 yards apart on the field, they frequently can be seen – and heard – yelling toward each other. They speak the same language as Green Bay’s offense, so Bears quarterback Justin Fields shouldn’t be able to translate in Week 1.

“I think that’s why I like playing with Ja because if Ja sees something, he’ll be like, ‘Yo, on that side, they gave me a double move and this is how he ran it, so be cautious if you see this type of alignment,’” Douglas said.

“We’ll go through and tell each other down and distance and, if we see a certain formation, we’ll tell each other, ‘This is coming’ and you’ll see me and Ja talking. That Detroit game, me and him talked crossers so he got up and jumped a crosser on the other side that they were trying to throw to [Amon-Ra] St. Brown and he got an interception. We’re always going through and talking about plays.”

With Alexander and Douglas, the Packers have two of the NFL’s premier cornerbacks.

“Now,” Alexander said, “it’s two primetime players on the field.”