Jaire Alexander has been limited by a knee issue over the past few weeks, and it sounds like the injury is worse than the cornerback and the Packers initially let on. Alexander told Matt Schneidman of The Athletic that he suffered a PCL tear that might keep him off the field for several more weeks.
Alexander suffered the tear during Green Bay’s Week 8 win over Jacksonville. He sat out the team’s Week 9 contest and had a bye during Week 10. After practicing on a limited basis last week, Alexander started Sunday’s win over the Bears, but he only got into 10 defensive snaps before exiting the game for good. As Schneidman notes, coach Matt LaFleur had previously revealed that Alexander would be on a snap limit for Week 11, but the cornerback was still expected to play more than a handful of drives.
“I stayed here the whole bye week trying to hopefully come back and make an impact for the team,” Alexander told Schneidman. “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.”
Alexander expressed optimism that he can get back to his All-Pro production for the stretch run of the 2024 campaign. However, the cornerback cautioned that he may need more time off as he looks to return to full strength.
The former first-round pick established himself as one of the NFL’s top defensive backs with strong showings in 2020 and 2022. Unfortunately, his other recent campaigns have been wrecked by injuries. He was limited to four games in 2021 thanks to a shoulder injury, and he got into only seven games in 2023 while dealing with back and shoulder issues (along with a one-game suspension). Alexander also missed a pair of games earlier this season while nursing a groin injury.
Keisean Nixon has secured the other starting CB spot this season and will continue to lead the depth chart with Alexander out of the lineup. Eric Stokes got a long look as the team’s third CB but was passed by Carrington Valentine in Week 11.
So did I understand right, that everyone was aware of the severity shortly after the initial injury, but thought ‘ah, he’ll be fine. We’ll rub some dirt on it during the bye week and no more hurt knee.’
It’s very concerning how the medical staff as well as coaches are handling injuries. First they allow Love to come back to soon-and whether his initial injury led to the second is sort of irrelevant-now they brush off Alexander’s as well.
I’m a bit surprised now that they put Lloyd on the NFI list.
Injury prone and will likely be cut soon.
This is why the Packers needed to use an early pick at CB this past draft when the position was absolutely loaded this year. Jaime is only reliable for 8 or 9 games at best all year, Stokes is awful, just because he looks good in shorts during offseason workouts doesn’t mean it’ll translate to the field because it hasn’t since he was exposed after his rookie year. Cooper DeJean and Kool Aid McKinstry were sitting there for us and both are looking like solid if not excellent starting CBs but Gutey always had to go against the obvious to look like the smartest man in the room just like Ted used to which is what cost us TJ Watt during Teds regime a future HOFer who fell in the Packers lap and now DeJean is one of the top rookies in the nfl and looks primed to have an outstanding NFL career at CB but we had to take Jordan Morgan because they thought he was a LT until he was moved off tackle to guard before the 2nd week of camp and even at guard he’s behind Sean Rhyan. Yet another wasted number 1