Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said his team could afford to keep Jaire Alexander but gave no firm indication of whether or not the Packers will end up retaining the injury-plagued cornerback on the roster for the 2025 season.
Alexander, who turns 28 next month, missed 10 regular season games during each of the last two seasons, including the final seven games of the 2024 season after he injured his knee in late October. Aging, expensive and oft-injured players always have uncertain futures when it comes to salary-capped professional football.
In his season-ending press conference on Thursday, Gutekunst said the Packers are still gathering information on how they want to proceed in 2025 but expressed a mix of sympathy and frustration on how injuries have wrecked Alexander’s last two seasons.
“Yeah, we’ll work through that,” Gutekunst said. “We certainly can (keep Alexander). I know it’s been really, really frustrating, not only for him as a player but for us as a club, when you have a player who has done what he’s done for us in the past, and then not being able to get him on the field consistently, that’s tough on the player, tough on the organization. We’re at the beginning stages of gathering information, as a whole, before we start looking at next year. We could. When he’s healthy and ready to play, he’s a pretty good player.”
Alexander has dealt with injuries to his shoulder, back, groin and knee injuries since the start of the 2021 season. Out of a possible 68 regular season since over the last four seasons, Alexander has been available for only 34.
A two-time All-Pro, Alexander is under contract for the next two seasons, but his cap number rises to almost $25 million in 2025. The Packers could get out of the deal and save money on the cap while still incurring a sizeable dead money cap hit — of $18 million — next year.
Gutekunst dismissed any idea that there is a disconnect between Alexander and the Packers, even after Alexander openly questioned if he’d be back in Green Bay for 2025 during locker cleanout day this week.
“No,” Gutekunst said. “Again, there’s frustration on both sides from the fact that he can’t get out there. That’s tough. I feel for him. He wants to be out there, he wants to play. But no, no disconnect.”
Alexander has no more guaranteed money left in his deal. His non-guaranteed base salary is over $16 million in 2025 and and over $18 million in 2026, but the Packers still have over $18 million of prorated signing bonuses to count against the salary cap from Alexander’s deal, which was worth $84 million over four years when signed in 2022.
