The Green Bay Packers have clinched a spot in the 2024 NFL playoffs, but they will have to make their run without star cornerback Jaire Alexander available.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters on January 1 that Alexander will “most likely” miss the remainder of the season — including the postseason — with a right knee injury that has kept him from playing since November 17’s first game against Chicago.
“Yeah, I would expect Ja, most likely he’s going to be done for the rest of the year,” LaFleur said Tuesday when asked for updates about the team’s injured cornerback.
Alexander has been dealing with a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his right knee since October 27’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. While he tried to return for Week 11’s win over the Bears, he managed to play 10 snaps before the team pulled him.
Since then, Alexander’s status has been shrouded in uncertainty. He has returned to the practice field with “full participant” listings on the injury report in recent weeks, but the team has continually shut him down for games — often days before kickoff. Meanwhile, LaFleur has dodged questions about Alexander’s status when pressed for more details.
Now, it seems, the reason for the mystery is that Alexander’s knee is in worse condition than either he or the team realized. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to “alleviate pain and swelling” in his knee on New Year’s Eve — a procedure that will expectedly keep him from playing again this season for the Packers.
There is a silver lining for the Packers with Alexander, though — if they are lucky.
Jaire Alexander ‘Could’ Return if Packers Make Super Bowl
While Schefter confirmed the reports of others about Alexander’s season-ending knee surgery, he also added that a source told him that Alexander has a chance of making it back in time for the 2025 Super Bowl on February 9 if the Packers make it that far.
Unfortunately, the Packers are unlikely to take much solace in their long-shot chance of getting Alexander back. Not only would they need to win three playoff games to open up the possibility of Alexander’s return, but they would also need to evaluate whether he is in good enough shape to play in the NFL season’s most important game after sitting out nearly a dozen practices — and potentially more to come — since injuring his knee.
In the meantime, the Packers must hope their adjusted cornerback lineup of Carrington Valentine, Keisean Nixon and Eric Stokes can keep them competitive in the playoffs. It also helps that rookie safety Javon Bullard — their top option in the slot — returned from his injury in Week 17 and is trending in the right direction for the postseason.
Will Packers Bring Back Jaire Alexander for 2025 Season?
Alexander may technically still have a chance to return for the Packers this season, but his injury raises a more important question: Will Green Bay bring him back in 2025?
Alexander will now have missed 33 regular-season games for the Packers over the past four seasons when he sits out in Week 18. He has played more than seven games in just one of those seasons, appearing in 16 of 17 games and reaching his second career Pro Bowl in 2022 during the first year of his current four-year, $84 million contract.
Entering Year 3 of Alexander’s deal, though, the Packers must figure out whether it is worth it for them to continue paying him like one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the league after back-to-back seasons of significant injury absences in 2023 and 2024. The Packers could release Alexander with a post-June 1 designation this offseason and save $17.5 million of his roughly $25.36 million cap hit against the 2025 salary cap.
Then again, the Packers may not want to head into the 2025 offseason looking for two new starting outside cornerbacks. They have struggled at the position throughout the 2024 season and will see three of their rostered cornerbacks — Stokes, Robert Rochell and Corey Ballentine — become free agents in March without new contracts.
Perhaps the Packers feel Valentine can ascend to a permanent starting role alongside a promising rookie draft pick in 2025, but it is a mighty big risk for them to take if they choose to part ways with Alexander.
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