Jaire Alexander is off the market.
The Pro Bowl cornerback signed with the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it is effectively a one-year, $4 million deal with up to $2 million in incentives.
While much was made of how things ended with Green Bay Packers, Alexander’s camp is trying to set the record straight. On Wednesday, his father, Landis Alexander, spoke about the split on ESPN Wisconsin radio, saying Alexander wanted to return but disagreed with the structure of Green Bay’s offer.
“There needed to be a base, there needed to be some sort of a guarantee, whether it was $2 million or whatever,” the elder Alexander said. “But there was no part of that that was guaranteed, and there was no signing bonus. There was a bunch of roster bonuses riddled through that contract.”
Alexander also scoffed at the notion that his son refused to take a pay cut of any kind.
“He wasn’t upset or angry with anybody,” Alexander said. “He wanted to come back. … He loved Green Bay, he loved the community.
“We had three properties in Green Bay. We were there. I thought he was going to be there.”
Packers Tried to Trade Jaire Alexander
The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman reported prior to Alexander’s release that the Packers had offered to rework his contract. But Alexander, 28, who was due a base salary of $16.15 million next season, declined.
Landis Alexander tried to clear the air on X (formerly Twitter), saying the Packers’ restructured offer would have been “foolish to take.”
“The only thing,” he said, “that was slightly off is that there was an unwillingness to rework a contract. … The unwillingness was on them.”
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer previously reported that Green Bay offered Alexander a reduced one-year, incentive laden deal earlier this offseason that would’ve kept him in Titletown through 2026. When their offer was rebuffed, they tried multiple times to trade him, including during the draft.
In 2022, after signing a four-year, $84 million contract extension, Alexander recorded a career-high five interceptions and was voted to the All-Pro team. But a multitude of injuries have limited him to just seven games in each of the last two seasons.
“Somewhere, somebody had a meeting and decided that this is what he’s worth to us because we’ve given him so much and he’s not playing very much,” Landis Alexander told ESPN Wisconsin. “Again, I get that part. But I don’t like the narrative of … we didn’t want to take a pay cut. That’s just ridiculous.”
Jaire Alexander Immediately Upgrades Ravens Secondary
The deal with Baltimore will reunite Alexander with his former Louisville teammate, Lamar Jackson. The MVP quarterback had urged Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta to sign him, saying after Tuesday’s minicamp practice, “Go get him, Eric.”
If Alexander can stay healthy, Baltimore will have one of the best secondaries in the NFL. He joins a unit that features Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins at cornerback and Kyle Hamilton at safety.
The Ravens, who finished 31st in pass defense last season (244.1 yards allowed per game), also used a first-round pick on former Georgia safety Malaki Starks.
