GREEN BAY, Wis. — Entering the playoffs having gone 0-5 in the regular season against the top three teams in the conference is one obstacle. Likely having to travel for whatever games you play is another. Now, the Packers are faced with perhaps their biggest roadblock yet.
Head coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday that cornerback Jaire Alexander will likely miss the remainder of the season because of the knee injury that has ailed him since Week 8. According to a source with knowledge of the procedure, Alexander had a scope done on his right knee on Tuesday.
Alexander told The Athletic earlier this season that he tore his PCL in Week 8 against the Jaguars. On tight end Evan Engram’s late touchdown catch in an eventual Packers walk-off win, Alexander came up hobbling. It was Green Bay’s last defensive snap of the game and Alexander missed the following Sunday’s game against the Lions before remaining in Green Bay during the Week 10 bye in an effort to return in Week 11 in Chicago.
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Alexander tried playing against the Bears but only managed 10 snaps before bowing out. He re-aggravated the injury that afternoon and hasn’t played since. The Packers never put Alexander on injured reserve during his six-game absence. He logged a handful of practices during that stretch as a full participant despite not playing.
Preceding last Sunday’s game against the Vikings, Alexander went from an estimated full participant on Wednesday to a limited participant on Thursday to a non-participant on Friday. LaFleur said that Alexander was dealing with swelling in his knee. The head coach also declined comment when asked about the Packers potentially thinking Alexander could play through his injury and Alexander insisting he couldn’t.
“It’s unfortunate,” LaFleur said. “It is what it is. I feel for him. Obviously, he was trying to get his knee right. It wasn’t getting right and so, yeah, it’s a tough deal for all of us.”
LaFleur had no interest in discussing whether the Packers botched Alexander’s season by letting him play in Week 11.
“Yeah, we can go back in time. That’s not what I’m trying to do right now,” LaFleur said. “It’s the situation. It stinks that we’re here, but we’re here.”
How concerned should Packer fans be about the team entering the playoffs?@kuhnj30 and I discuss that and much more on the latest pod: https://t.co/PKN38uv6fJ
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) December 31, 2024
Alexander, who turns 28 next month, is a two-time All Pro (2020 and 2022) who the Packers signed to a then-record-setting contract extension in March 2022 that has paid him $21 million per year. Since the start of the 2021 season, he has played in just 37 of a potential 63 games in the regular season and playoffs. In his two All-Pro seasons, the 2018 first-round pick played 15 and 16 regular-season games, respectively, while playing four, seven and seven, respectively, in 2021, 2023 and 2024. In seven games this season, Alexander has two interceptions, both in the first three games, including a pick-six against the Titans in Week 3.
It remains to be seen whether Alexander has played his last snap with the Packers. According to Over the Cap, the Packers can free up approximately $7.3 million in cap space by trading or releasing Alexander before June 1, 2025.
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In his place, the likes of Eric Stokes and Carrington Valentine will have to continue stepping up at cornerback. Both have shown flashes in recent weeks, with Valentine intercepting the first two passes of his career in the last three games.
“I’m just kinda used to it now, honestly,” Valentine said of his on-and-off playing time since Alexander’s injury. “It’s really next-man-up mentality. We always gonna go out there and compete and just put our best foot forward … I’m probably my biggest critic. It’s always things to clean up, so I still feel like I’m still trending upwards. I still feel like there’s more to give for sure.”
Valentine first played at least 90 percent of the defensive snaps in a game against the Seahawks in Week 15 and has done so against the Saints and Vikings the last two games, too. That includes Valentine playing each defensive snap in Minnesota last Sunday, something he had not done since Week 17 of his rookie season. Stokes, the 2021 first-round pick who appears unlikely to re-sign with the Packers after his contract expires this offseason, hasn’t been exposed in recent weeks nearly as much as he has at times prior in his career.
“I think he’s done a nice job and we got to continue to build upon that,” LaFleur said.
“Finally getting more comfortable and more comfortable as the weeks go on with the scheme, technique,” Stokes said. “It was just a lot of little things just getting used to the technique, getting used to some of the other little things all over and some of the routes and some of the things that were getting. I just had to get used to it and now pretty much, we know what type of defense we run, so we pretty much get hit with the same things over and over, so then you start picking up on it.”
“It’s the same thing that their guys were doing to our defensive ends.”
Matt LaFleur sounds off against criticism of Tucker Kraft’s low block that injured a Vikings OLB.
His full comments here: https://t.co/2UJAekTM0D
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) December 31, 2024
With everyone minus Alexander healthy, the Packers would likely play Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety, Javon Bullard at nickel and Keisean Nixon at one outside cornerback spot with a rotation of Stokes and Valentine at the other. However, Williams is currently sidelined with a quad injury (LaFleur hopes to have him back for the playoffs). Zayne Anderson, who started at safety against the Vikings, missed jog-through Wednesday with a concussion.
Bullard switched mid-game in Minnesota from nickel to safety, two completely different positions, and Nixon is the natural replacement at nickel since he played there first with the Packers before moving outside.
There are a lot of moving parts in the secondary, which isn’t exactly ideal when your road to an unlikely Super Bowl appearance could have to go through the Eagles, Vikings and Lions. It’s not ideal, either, when the one part you’re definitely without for the wild-card round is your best cornerback. Nonetheless, the Packers must make due with what they have in the defensive backfield, just as they have without Alexander for a large chunk of the past four seasons.
“I’ve been saying for a long time, we have a lot of talented guys, a lot of guys who are smart and can adjust on the fly,” McKinney said. “I feel good about our group. Obviously, we have guys who are being called upon each week. I feel really good about this group and what we have.”
(Photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
