At his best, Jaire Alexander has proven he is one of the best outside cornerbacks in the NFL. Unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers, his lack of availability over the last two seasons has eroded his value. That's why the front office made a strong effort to trade him leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft.
In the end, Green Bay was unable to find a taker for the highly paid cornerback. The draft came and went without the Packers securing a potential replacement in the starting lineup. It's no surprise that more and more reports are popping up about a potential reconciliation between Alexander and the team that drafted him.
The best course available to GM Brian Gutekunst and his staff is to make sure head coach Matt LaFleur gets back onto the same page as Alexander. Here are the top three reasons why the Packers need to roll the dice on the talented corner getting back to his best next season.
1. Jaire Alexander is still the team's most talented option at corner
There's no getting around the ugly reality that Alexander has only managed to play seven games in each of his last two seasons. There's also no cogent argument to be made that he isn't the team's most talented cornerback.
If the Packers are going to mount a credible charge at an NFC North title in 2025 they need to keep as many potential difference makers on the roster as possible. Alexander may not be a great bet to reach his full potential, but imagining a bounce-back season that lands him in the Pro Bowl next season is still straightforward.
It's important to note here that with Alexander in the fold the projected backups at both outsider cornerbacks are both former seventh round picks. Micah Robinson was just drafted this year out of Tulane. Expecting him to play meaningful snaps as a rookie is more of a hope than an actual plan.
Carrington Valentine was a seventh-rounder back in 2023 who deserves credit for outperforming his draft slot. That does not mean he's ready to handle a starting role for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. He's much better as a backup than a starter at this stage of his career.
The unwritten reality here is that the Packers do not need Alexander to play 17 games for him to give them value. What they really need from him is to be healthy down the stretch and when the playoffs roll around. His upside as a No. 1 cornerback makes him a worthwhile risk for a team with as much talent as the Packers have at their disposal.
2. Keeping Jaire Alexander will keep Jordan Love happy
Jordan Love is the single most important player on the Packers roster. Green Bay should not permit him to exercise too much control over their roster decisions but they'd be foolish not to take his feelings into account.
That's why Love's public support for Alexander should play a part in the front office's decision-making process. It's totally reasonable for Love to want the team to invest heavily in veterans with the ability to help him get to a Super Bowl this season. At his best, Alexander is that sort of difference maker.
That's why the Packers would be wise to tell Love that his support for Alexander has swayed them to keep the veteran defensive back in the fold. They never know when the might need to go against Love in a decision about a player who might be past their prime. Giving their franchise quarterback a "win" now might help the franchise go against him in a more impactful decision down the line.
3. Green Bay has missed their chance to replace Jaire Alexander
The cupboard of potential Alexander replacements is not totally bare at the moment, but the team's options have diminished sharply since the start of the offseason. Unless the Packers are willing to go bargain shopping on a free agent like Asante Samuel Jr. or Rasul Douglas their options to find a replacement for Alexander have vanished.
The draft would have been the most reasonable place to find Alexander's successor. Plenty of mocks had Green Bay spending a Day one or Day Two pick on a new outside corner. It seems the front office never saw great value at the position when they went on the clock.
That's why they didn't spend a pick on a cornerback until the last round of the draft. Every time the Packers passed on a new cornerback in the draft it became more and more obvious that a reconciliation with Alexander was in the cards. The smart move for Green Bay is to give the former Pro Bowler one more chance to live up to his big contract.