The Green Bay Packers have been without their All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander since Week 4 against Pittsburgh when he injured his AC joint. Surgery ultimately would have ended Alexander’s season, so instead, Green Bay was patient and wanted to see if the injury would heal on its own–which apparently, to some degree, it has. Alexander, who is still on IR, came back to practice on December 8th and has participated in every practice since then. This return opened a three-week window for the Packers to elevate him to the 53-man roster.
Well, that 21-day window is coming to a close this Wednesday, and the Packers have two options. They can either place Alexander on the 53-man roster or keep him on IR, but doing so will effectively end his season.
Now, if Alexander is elevated, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he will be on the field this Sunday against Minnesota –although wouldn’t that be nice with Justin Jefferson coming to Lambeau Field — he just has to be placed on the 53-man roster. Green Bay faced a similar situation with David Bakhtiari coming off the PUP list in which he either needed to be added to the roster or shut down for the remainder of the season. As we all know, Bakhtiari has been on the 53 despite not yet suiting up for a game.
Although the Green Bay Packers have been without one of the league’s best cornerbacks, their pass defense has held up very well with the emergence of Eric Stokes and the midseason addition of Rasul Douglas. All of this has been a very pleasant surprise, as coming into the season, the cornerback depth was my biggest concern.
In Joe Barry’s defense where he utilizes lightboxes and a cover-2 shell, all of which provides some additional help to the corners, Green Bay is allowing only 6.1 yards per pass attempt this season, which ranks fourth in football. Also, the 216.0 total passing yards per game they’ve given up ranks 10th.
Stokes has been targeted 87 times, according to PFF ($$), allowing a completion rate of only 51.7 percent and 11.9 yards per catch. He also has one interception and nine pass breakups–tied for the ninth most among cornerbacks this season.
Douglas, meanwhile, has been just as, if not more effective, logging a 53.4 percent completion rate on 58 targets. He has surrendered only 9.9 yards per catch with five pass breakups, and Douglas leads the team in interceptions with five–two of which went for touchdowns.
Upon Alexander’s hopeful return, the Green Bay Packers will have some decisions to make in the secondary. Do they go with Alexander and Stokes on the boundary? Or perhaps Alexander and Douglas? Or maybe they keep Stokes and Douglas out wide and move Alexander to the slot?
Regardless of what they choose, and my guess is that it will change week to week based on the opponent and the matchup, this is a very good problem to have.
Over the last handful of games, this Green Bay defense has been trending downward, allowing 28.8 points per game during that span. While there is more than one reason behind their recent struggles, having Alexander back in the mix will certainly help turn things around–let’s just hope his shoulder is healed and he gets the opportunity to.
In four games this season, Alexander was targeted 19 times, giving up 11 receptions for 12.1 yards with a pass breakup, an interception, and a passer rating of 92.7 when thrown at per PFF.