Packer Central

ESPN: Packers ‘Best Fit’ for All-Pro Pass Rusher; What About Jaire Alexander?

The Green Bay Packers have one significant weakness that wasn’t addressed this offseason. There’s one big opportunity out there. Plus, what team is the best fit for Jaire Alexander?
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander gestures to the fans before the game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander gestures to the fans before the game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With five veterans added in free agency and eight rookies added during the draft, the heavy lifting of the NFL offseason is complete for the Green Bay Packers.

Or is it?

Still looming is a decision in former All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander, whose tenure in Green Bay has been in limbo since the 2024 season ended more than four months ago.

Meanwhile, there’s one big fish remaining on the veteran market.

Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

The Packers didn’t adequately upgrade their pass rush during the draft and didn’t address it all during free agency. Hendrickson, who feels betrayed by the Bengals, says he will not play under his current contract but the Bengals have cut off communication.

“It’s become personal, unfortunately,” Hendrickson said last week.

The best fit in a potential trade is Green Bay, according to ESPN analyst and former NFL and Packers safety Matt Bowen.

“This would be a big-time get for the Packers’ defense,” Bowen said.

While Green Bay finished eighth in the NFL in sacks last season, it ranked in the second half of the league in pressures.

Hendrickson led the NFL with 17.5 sacks last season. According to Pro Football Focus, Hendrickson and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett led the league with 83 pressures.

For Green Bay’s defensive ends, the returning trio of Rashan Gary (7.5 sacks, 47 pressures), Kingsley Enagbare (4.5 sacks, 25 pressures) and Lukas Van Ness (3.0 sacks, 20 pressures) combined for 15 sacks and 92 pressures.

“After being granted permission to seek a trade in March, Hendrickson is refusing to play with the Bengals until he receives a new contract,” Bowen wrote. “If no deal comes together, Green Bay would be the perfect landing spot for him, as he'd pair well with Rashan Gary in Jeff Hafley's defensive system. Lukas Van Ness, a 2023 first-rounder, is still developing at this stage, so there is a path for Green Bay to add more to its defensive line.

“Hendrickson is a relentless defender off the edge, with a deep toolbox of counters and a knack for making plays late in the down.”

Hendrickson is coming off back-to-back seasons of 17.5 sacks. Reggie White is the only player in NFL history with three consecutive seasons at that level. In fact, White, J.J. Watt and Mark Gastineau are the only players in NFL history with more 17.5-sack seasons with three apiece.

Hendrickson, who will turn 31 on Dec. 5, is entering his final season under contract. He is due a base salary of $15.8 million in 2025. While he ranks 11th among edge defenders in annual salary, the Browns’ Garrett ($40.0 million) and the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby ($35.5 million) signed huge contract extensions this offseason and the Cowboys’ Micah Parsons is due to get a huge contract, as well.

“I'm not going to apologize for the rates of the defensive ends being paid in the National Football League,” Hendrickson said.

Acquiring Hendrickson would be costly. The Bengals aren’t going to just give him away, and Hendrickson isn’t going to take an under-market contract.

The Packers are about $11.6 million over next year’s projected salary cap, according to OverTheCap.com, and that’s before wrestling with a presumptive contract extensions for Quay Walker and Zach Tom or wrestling with a strong class of free agents.

There are ways to create cap space, with the big one being a potential trade of cornerback Jaire Alexander, which would eliminate base salaries of $16.15 million for 2025 and $18.15 million from the ledger.

With free agency and the draft having come and gone, there still has been no decision on whether the Packers want Alexander back for 2025 (or whether Alexander wants to be back for 2025). His injury history and contract make him expendable; his talent makes him almost irreplaceable.

The “best fit” for Alexander if there’s a trade would be the Los Angeles Chargers. Alexander was second-team All-Pro in 2022, when he had five interceptions in 16 games. In a total of 14 games the past two seasons, he has two interceptions. Both of those came last season, when his seven passes defensed tied Keisean Nixon for No. 1 among the team’s cornerbacks. Nixon played almost three times as many snaps as Alexander. 

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.