General manager Brian Gutekunst was speaking to the media the other day and was discussing the future of Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander. Gutekunst mentioned how the Packers have no plans to trade Alexander this offseason.
There were a lot of Packers fans who were happy when they found that out, but what if Gutekunst was playing mind games about it? It isn’t the first time that any general manager has said that they plan on a certain player being back with the team the next season and then they weren’t after all.
There is no question Jaire Alexander is by far the best cornerback on the roster when healthy and available. The problem was, he missed 10 games during the regular season in 2023. Alexander recorded 27 tackles, one forced fumble, five pass deflections, and zero interceptions.
He also had 12 total tackles in two playoff games this season. Cornerback is a position of need anyway for the Green Bay Packers this offseason.
Green Bay Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst Can Change His Mind If He Wants To But Jaire Alexander’s Contract Might Be Too Expensive to Trade
Even if Gutekunst decided to wake up and change his mind tomorrow about Alexander, good luck trading his contract away. According to Spotrac, he will have a $23 million cap hit for 2024. Green Bay can get out of his contract after next season and it would be a dead cap hit of $19 million. If they were to keep him past then, he won’t be an unrestricted free agent until after the 2026 season.
He is only 26 years old and in the prime of his NFL career. If there were some suitors for Jaire Alexander, the Philadelphia Eagles would be one of those teams that would maybe pull the trigger on an Alexander trade. The Pittsburgh Steelers could be another team that could use a legit starting cornerback.
From a business perspective and from a team perspective, this was one of the few times where general manager Brian Gutekunst was actually smart for saying that they plan on keeping Alexander for next season and beyond. If they did trade him, they would need to get at least two first-round picks back for him and no team would want to give up that kind of haul for him.
