Packers President Mark Murphy summed up the career of cornerback Jaire Alexander quite succinctly on Monday morning as word spread that Green Bay is getting ready to release him.
“He’s been a great player for us. Obviously elite talent,” Murphy said. “Unfortunately, just injured a lot. Unfortunately, that’s a big part of our game.”
Alexander has played more than seven regular-season games in a season just once in the last four years, missing the same number of games (34) he has played in during that span.
But in his last two mostly healthy seasons in 2020 and 2022, Alexander was a Pro Bowl player and second-team All-Pro.
In addition to missing time with a variety of injuries, including a knee ailment last season that required surgery, Alexander was suspended for a game by the Packers in 2023 for going rogue during a pregame coin toss. Plus he got into a taunting and trash talk war with Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson in 2022.
Add that all up, and a risk-reward question emerges: Should the Vikings, who have upgraded their roster this offseason but look thin at cornerback on the eve of mandatory minicamp, be interested in signing Alexander?
The upside and downside is clear for a Vikings organization that prides itself on savvy acquisitions and often looks for value in players with past histories of injuries (and also has a taste for acquiring former Packers players).
A healthy Alexander is one of the best shutdown corners in the league with a skill set that commanded a four-year, $84 million contract extension in 2022 that made him at the time the highest-paid corner in the NFL.
