How the Packers’ draft affects Jaire Alexander’s future and more takeaways

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GREEN BAY, Wis. — Days before the 2025 NFL Draft, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was asked about cornerback Jaire Alexander’s future. The team has been open to trading one of its best players of the last decade, presumably because of his price tag and lack of availability in recent years, but Gutekunst had left the door open for Alexander to stay.

As part of his answer, Gutekunst said, “We’ll see how the draft goes and then see where we are at that point.”

The draft came and went with the Packers taking one cornerback. Not in the first round to potentially replace Alexander as Green Bay’s No. 1 cornerback of the future, but with pick No. 237 in the seventh round. If Gutekunst thought Alexander’s future would be influenced by who the Packers drafted at the position, Tulane cornerback Micah Robinson isn’t doing anything to push Alexander out the door.

That means Alexander is staying on the team for the 2025 season, right? Especially since head coach Matt LaFleur said Saturday that Alexander participated in the virtual first week of the voluntary offseason program?

Not so fast.

“No real updates on that,” Gutekunst said. “We’ll work through that as we go, but no updates there, and he is on our roster right now, and that’s how we’ll proceed. But we’ll figure that (out) as we go along.”

Later, asked to clarify if “that’s how we’ll proceed” meant Alexander is remaining on the team, Gutekunst said, “No, I’m just saying nothing’s changed. No updates. We’ll proceed as we go for right now and we’ll see how it goes.”

At this point, unless a team that didn’t get its desired cornerback(s) in the draft makes a mouth-watering offer for Alexander, there doesn’t seem to be any point in trading him since the Packers wouldn’t be able to use that draft capital to improve the team for another calendar year. Releasing him before June 1 would free up about $7.6 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap, while doing so after June 1 would free up about $17.1 million. But the Packers, who rank No. 11 in the NFL in cap space at $31.3 million, don’t need to free up space for what they’re expected to do (or not do) for the remainder of the offseason.

Alexander can be among the league’s best cornerbacks when healthy. He has made the All-Pro second team the last two times he’s played more than seven games in a season, though those honors came in 2020 and 2022. Since the Packers can technically afford Alexander’s salary (third-highest cap hit on the team, approximately $24.6 million, behind quarterback Jordan Love and defensive end Rashan Gary), is it worth rolling the dice on his health and keeping him on the team at this point? Or are there off-the-field factors playing into the decision? And if Alexander stays, would he amicably re-enter the locker room after knowing the only team for which he’s ever played was open to trading him?

The Packers haven’t sounded like they think they absolutely need Alexander from a football-only standpoint. Gutekunst gushed over how Keisean Nixon played at outside cornerback last season and both the GM and LaFleur like free-agent signing Nate Hobbs’ ability on the outside, too, despite Hobbs being more of a nickel cornerback. If Alexander returns, that might relegate one of those two to make sturdy money to the bench. Or one of Nixon/Hobbs plays nickel and second-year defensive back Javon Bullard hits the pine. When healthy, Alexander is the best cornerback on the team, so the Packers might not be so quick to let how his return would affect playing time for others dictate their decision.

Gutekunst and the Packers have to make a final decision at some point. With the draft behind them, it would appear logical for Alexander to remain on the team, but that hardly sounds inevitable when listening to the GM.

Bravo, Green Bay

Shout out to Green Bay. The city put on a fantastic NFL Draft based on the accounts I’ve seen. Discover Green Bay, the city’s tourism and information center, estimated that 250,000 people would attend the draft. The league announced that number at 600,000 on Saturday evening after 220,000 more came to Day 3. From president Mark Murphy’s iconic announcement of first-round pick Matthew Golden on Thursday night to Golden’s Texas teammate and fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell being at the draft to walk on stage Saturday, and everything outside those two selections, it looked like a memorable weekend outside Lambeau Field.

“I thought it might just be a nuisance, but it was such a cool environment, such a cool thing,” Gutekunst said. “Just a lot of thanks and gratitude to Mark for just having the vision to bring that here. I think that was something that we’ll never forget.”

Added LaFleur: “I can’t imagine any NFL Draft being better than the one we hosted here.”

Green Bay, you’ve outdone yourself.

Thank you for an incredible 2025 #NFLDraft. 💚💛 pic.twitter.com/3LM7VHxoyA

— NFL (@NFL) April 26, 2025

Creative juices are flowing

The head coach’s gears are already turning when thinking about how to use third-round pick Savion Williams. The former TCU wide receiver is more of a gadget piece than a traditional wideout. And though the Packers view him first as a receiver, they think he can do plenty more. At 6 feet, 4 inches and 222 pounds with 4.48 speed, Williams is an intriguing chess piece for LaFleur to use whenever he’s ready to take on those snaps.

“You love the versatility, just his ability to go in there, play wildcat quarterback, get in the backfield and play as a halfback or whatever, however you want to use him,” LaFleur said. “Jet sweeps. You just want to find different ways to give him the ball because he’s so big, he’s so powerful, so explosive and I think that guys just have a tendency to bounce off of him. I think he’s just scratching the surface of the playmaker he can become.”

Catch 22

Golden asked for a “Green Bay on three” when he took the mic on Thursday night in front of the crowd outside his new home stadium. He’ll learn quickly that “Go Pack Go” is the only acceptable option there, but fans will forgive him. What they don’t appear ready to forgive him for is his jersey number. They didn’t seem thrilled when the Packers announced Golden would wear No. 81 and they seemed downright appalled when the team announced Saturday that Golden would actually wear No. 22. I tweeted the change and the simple sentence had almost two million views on X as of Sunday morning. I don’t think I saw one word of support for the change, from a local or national level. Perhaps there’s a special meaning behind the number that Golden will explain at rookie minicamp in a week, but he is currently taking uppercut after uppercut from the online jersey police.

Slight update@amfam pic.twitter.com/PCupT0Jwq9

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 26, 2025

Clogging the middle

The Packers might have found their T.J. Slaton replacement in sixth-round Georgia defensive tackle Warren Brinson, who stands 6 feet 5 and weighs 315 pounds. Gutekunst couldn’t help but scratch the itch to draft a fifth Georgia defender in the last five drafts. Slaton, who signed with the Bengals in free agency after four years on Green Bay’s interior defensive line, was a space-eater who didn’t offer much rushing the passer. Gutekunst said Brinson is more of a natural pass rusher than Slaton coming out of college.

“A really big man that can do a lot of things,” the GM said. “I think the coaching staff, and I know I believe, he can play up and down the line. He’s not just a one-position player on the defensive line, so that was one of the things that attracted us to him.”

Added LaFleur: “Losing a guy like T.J. Slaton, you want to replace that and so we’re hopeful he can come in here and do some of the dirty work in that regard.”

FaceTime your QB

After LaFleur told “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday about his FaceTime with quarterback Jordan Love the night before, LaFleur clarified Saturday that he was the one to initiate the call after the team selected Golden.

“You always want to kind of connect with the quarterback when you give him some pieces, so I FaceTimed him,” LaFleur said. “And he’s like, ‘Man, sub-4.3.’ He’s like, ‘Ah, I gotta get that arm loose.’ … I said, ‘Hey, man, you’re just going to have to get that ball up on time and out early.’”

(Photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

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