GREEN BAY, Wis. — Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander is dealing with more than just a routine knee injury.
“I had a tear on my PCL,” he told The Athletic in the locker room on Thursday.
Alexander suffered the initial injury late in the Packers’ win over the Jaguars in Week 8 and missed Green Bay’s Week 9 game against the Lions. The Packers had a Week 10 bye and Alexander played only 10 defensive snaps against the Bears last Sunday before leaving the game and not returning. He practiced in a limited capacity each day last week and was listed as questionable for the game before playing. Head coach Matt LaFleur said Monday that Alexander was on a pitch count entering Sunday’s game, anyway, but that Alexander felt like he couldn’t play more than 10 snaps.
“I stayed here the whole bye week trying to hopefully come back and make an impact for the team,” Alexander said. “It was a game-time decision at that, so we didn’t know … until, you know, a few minutes before the game if I would play or not.
“I just tried to give it a go … I went out there and s–t, all I could really give was 10 plays and then it — I felt something. If you know how (posterior cruciate ligaments) work, it don’t just get done in three weeks, so it just needed more time. I reaggravated it going back out there and only doing 10 plays, so now we just trying to get my knee back right.”
LIVE: Head Coach Matt LaFleur meets with the media 🎙️ https://t.co/iAscgcjASx
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 21, 2024
Alexander, a second-team All-Pro in 2020 and 2022, was asked if he could return to that form at some point in the second half of this season.
“Yessir. Oh, heck yeah. Of course,” he said. “You know, I just need more than 21 days of non-contact. It just needed more time because to take three weeks off and not do much, that still wasn’t enough.”
So what exactly is he looking at for a return timetable?
“I don’t know,” Alexander said. “I got a meeting today with everybody, so we gon’ kinda go and see what’s the best decision, so that’s all.”
Alexander has missed 27 of a potential 61 regular-season games since the start of the 2021 season, with 26 of those due to various injuries. He missed 13 games with a shoulder injury in 2021, one game with a groin injury in 2022 and then three games with a back injury in 2023. Alexander missed Weeks 3 and 4 last season with the back injury and knew it was hurting entering a Week 5 game against former teammate Davante Adams and the Raiders, but, as Alexander said Thursday, he “had to play” and did so for all 64 defensive snaps in Las Vegas. He then missed Week 6 with the same back injury. Alexander then missed six games later in the season with a shoulder injury, one while suspended, two more this season with a groin injury and now one and counting with his PCL injury.
Alexander has been an All-Pro in the last two seasons he’s played at least 15 games, but staying on the field has been a challenge for the $21 million-per-year cornerback who signed that then-record four-year extension in the 2022 offseason.
“You’re talking about an elite player at his position, so it definitely is tough when he’s not out there,” LaFleur said. “That’s the case for a lot of teams in this league, missing players, and you’ve got to have the next guy step up, be ready to go and can never let that standard slip.”
Edgerrin Cooper a new DNP at practice, which is indoors today. Cooper was limited yesterday with a hamstring injury. Jaire Alexander (knee) still not practicing.
Here’s Jordan Love: pic.twitter.com/a9H0liYI2N
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) November 21, 2024
Despite battling through injuries, Alexander has still been involved daily and said Thursday he’s in a good spot with regards to team commitment.
“He’s in the meetings, he’s still communicating with everybody … he’s still watching film and still trying to see ways where he can help us go out there and play better and just giving us different keys here and there,” safety Xavier McKinney said of Alexander. “He’s been great, man. He’s going to be Ja all the time, so his character never changes. He always has that energetic energy that we need and it’s good for all of us.”
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In Alexander’s place, Green Bay’s two starting outside cornerbacks will likely be Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine, who played 64 defensive snaps against the Bears to Eric Stokes’ four. Valentine played a pivotal role in the Packers’ resurgence last season after they traded Rasul Douglas and while Alexander and Stokes were sidelined.
Valentine hadn’t played more than 61 percent of the defensive snaps in a game this season before playing 89 percent last Sunday.
“It was good to get back out there, feel some things out, make some plays in the run game and stuff like that,” said Valentine, who missed Weeks 3 and 4 this season with an ankle injury after rotating with Stokes in Week 2. “It felt good and something to build off of …I feel like the confidence for me never left, no matter what the injury was.”
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(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)
