Packers GM Brian Gutekunst Gives Update on Jaire Alexander’s Future

The Green Bay Packers have a big decision to make about former All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander.

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst at the Scouting Combine / Bill Huber/Packers On SI

INDIANAPOLIS – Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst hasn’t closed the door on Jaire Alexander’s potential return for next season.

During a 38-minute conversation with reporters before his televised press conference from the Indiana Convention Center, Gutekunst said no decision has been made about the All-Pro cornerback’s future with the team that made him a first-round draft pick in 2018 and the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history in 2022.

“We’ll see,” Gutekunst said when asked point-blank if Alexander would be on the team in 2025. “We’re working through that. He certainly could be. But we’ll work through that as we go.”

Then Gutekunst got to the crux of the matter, with Alexander coming off a season in which he missed double-digits games for the third time in four seasons.

“We’ve got to get him out there more,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, we’ve talked about there’s been a lot of frustration on his part. He wants to be out there badly, and not being able to be out there at his best has frustrated him and that has frustrated our football team, too, because we’re better with him.”

There’s no doubt about that. In seven games, Alexander allowed a 56.0 percent completion rate, according to Pro Football Focus. That was significantly better than the playoff starters, Keisean Nixon (68.3 percent) and Carrington Valentine (79.3 percent).

Among the team’s cornerbacks, Alexander and Nixon tied for No. 1 with seven passes defensed. Nixon played 1,020 snaps while Alexander played 361.

Gutekunst said he hasn’t talked to Alexander since the end of the season. He has talked to Alexander’s agent, John Thornton, “a few times.” They probably will meet at the Scouting Combine, as well.

Alexander started six of the first eight games before he suffered a knee injury on the final snap at Jacksonville on Oct. 27. After getting two weeks off (the home loss to Detroit and the bye), Alexander returned for the Week 11 game at Chicago. He played 10 snaps before he aggravated the knee injury.

Alexander practiced frequently but didn’t play the rest of the season, ultimately shutting it down in favor of knee surgery.

Gutekunst said it was not a mistake to put Alexander back in the lineup against the Bears.

“He had a little bit of a setback in the game, but it was one of those things where, at some point, you have to go out there and see if you can go,” Gutekunst said. “He gave us 10, 15 plays.

“Again, it was frustrating because it was one of those things where every time he kind of got to the point where we thought he was going to be able to get over the hump, he wasn’t able to. Give him a lot of credit for trying, trying to get out there and help us. But yeah, it was disappointing.”

Alexander’s contract extends through the 2026 season, with base salaries of $16.15 million in 2025 and $18.15 million in 2026. His cap charge for the upcoming season is almost $25 million; the Packers could release him today and create almost $6.84 million of cap space, according to OverTheCap.com. 

That’s a lot of money for a player who played 1,026 snaps in 2021, 2023 and 2024; that’s less than he played in 2019. If Alexander were to be released after June 1, the cap savings would rise to $17.08 million.

If Green Bay decides to trade Alexander, Gutekunst would work with Thornton to make it happen but wouldn’t allow Thornton to take over the process.

“We’ve never really allowed agents to go out and talk to teams,” Gutekunst said. “I think that’s kind of (one of the) ones that probably happens, anyway. And Jaire’s got a great agent. If we ever went down that route, I think it would be very easy to work with him and his team. I think it’s something that if we were going to trade a player, we would do that and it would be the conversation between me and the other team.”

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Here's an updated "Tush Push" story after #Packers GM Brian Gutekunst's comments at the Scouting Combine.https://t.co/ymuO2FSxWB

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) February 25, 2025

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