The Green Bay Packers‘ approach to All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander’s current situation appears to be one of cautious deliberation.
Trade rumors have been swirling around Alexander since the 2024 season, and they’re still not calming down. At the NFL’s annual owners meetings on April 1, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said the team is “still working through” Alexander’s future.
Gutey also indicated a desire to resolve Alexander’s status before the NFL Draft, which kicks off on April 24. “I think that would be nice (to resolve it by the draft), but I don’t think you could say that for sure. That would be helpful,” he added.
At this point, a trade feels imminent.
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report named the Packers as a team that “should” pursue a trade for disgruntled Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson — and he came up with a trade proposal that would send Alexander to Cincy as part of the deal.
Packers Trade Proposal Would Swap CB Jaire Alexander for DE Trey Hendrickson
Here’s the trade proposed by Knox:
Packers Would Get: Hendrickson, 2025 third-round pick (81st overall)
Bengals Would Get: Alexander, 2025 second-round pick (54th overall)
“The Green Bay Packers have one of the NFL’s youngest rosters and are likely to continue building through their draft-and-develop strategy,” Knox wrote on April 4. “But targeting Hendrickson would make sense since they are also exploring the idea of trading cornerback Jaire Alexander. While Alexander has struggled to stay healthy over the past two years, the Packers aren’t about to let him go for pennies.”
Alexander, 28, has two years remaining on the four-year, $84 million extension he signed in October of 2022. His contract includes a $16.15 million base salary for 2025, with a cap hit of $25.86 million. If the Packers opt to trade or release him, they would incur $19.1 million in dead cap money.