GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the Green Bay Packers “open” to trading cornerback Jaire Alexander, a couple months of speculation has become more real.
Getting rid of a player is easy. Replacing him is more difficult.
The Packers got to the playoffs with Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine as their perimeter cornerbacks. They weren’t great but the Packers weren’t eliminated by the Eagles in the wild-card playoffs because they couldn’t guard A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Nonetheless, the Packers had no answers to the Lions’ Jared Goff and the Vikings’ Sam Darnold in getting swept by both teams. The 2025 home games feature out-of-division matchups against the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow and the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson.
Here are seven potential replacements for Alexander.
Free Agency: Paulson Adebo, Saints
A third-round pick in 2021, Adebo intercepted 10 passes in 52 career games (51 starts). He had a big-time 2023 with four interceptions and 18 passes defensed. He was on his way to doing it again with three interceptions and 10 passes defensed in seven games in 2024 before suffering a broken leg.
Adebo, who turned 25 on Jan. 1, allowed a 53.2 percent catch rate with zero touchdowns in 2023 and 55.3 percent with one touchdown in 2024, according to Sports Info Solutions.
At 6-foot-1 and with 4.45 speed, he’s got an excellent skill-set. In his NFL debut, he intercepted Aaron Rodgers.
Free Agency: Charvarius Ward, 49ers
Charvarius Ward, who will turn 29 during OTAs, had five interceptions and an NFL-leading 23 passes defensed in 2023. A family tragedy limited him to a dozen games in 2024 with zero interceptions and seven passes defensed.
Ward has a strong history. In seven seasons, SIS charged him with a 51.5 percent catch rate. His 58.5 percent in 2024 was the worst since his rookie year but much better than Nixon’s 60.9 percent and Valentine’s 76.5 percent in 2024.
Ward played a lot of Cover-3 with the 49ers. That’s how Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley wants to play, as well. At 6-foot 5/8, he’d bring necessary size.
Free Agency: Byron Murphy, Vikings
A second-round pick by the Cardinals in 2019, Murphy had five interceptions and 34 passes defensed in four seasons in Arizona but nine interceptions and 27 passes defensed in two seasons in Minnesota. He was a Pro Bowler in 2024 with six interceptions, thriving off the havoc created by defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
He’s 5-foot-11 1/8 and has slightly below-average speed. Murphy, who turned 27 in January, gave up a 59.0 percent catch rate in 2024. He can play outside or in the slot.
Free Agency: Asante Samuel Jr., Chargers
Asante Samuel was a popular name in mock drafts for the Packers in 2021. He wound up going in the second round to the Chargers, where he was consistent with two interceptions and 11 passes defensed in 2021 and 2022 and two interceptions and 13 passes defensed in 2023.
Samuel, who will turn 26 in October, missed most of 2024 with a shoulder injury that obviously will need vetting. At 5-foot-10 1/8, he’d be another smallish corner in a smallish secondary. According to Sports Info Solutions, his four-year catch rate was 56.0 percent with 10 touchdowns allowed and seven dropped interceptions.
Derrick Ansley, the defensive passing-game coordinator in Green Bay, spent the 2021 through 2023 seasons with the Chargers.
He wants to be great, doesn’t blink in adversity, the pressure doesn’t get to him – he actually thrives in it,” Ansley said after the 2021 season.
Draft: Benjamin Morrison, Notre Dame
Of the cornerbacks who should be available for the Packers, a scout called Benjamin Morrison the best zone-coverage corner in the draft.
In three seasons, Morrison allowed sub-50 percent completion rates in all three. He had six interceptions in 2022 and three in 2023 but missed the second half of 2024 with a hip injury that required surgery.
The medicals will be a critical element, because he’s a first-round talent based on ability and measurables. At 6-foot and 190 pounds, he’s got decent size.
Draft: Shavon Revel, East Carolina
Shavon Revel’s medicals will be important, too as he is coming off an ACL injury that ended his senior season after three games. His surgeon told teams he is “on schedule for full return to play this summer.”
At 6-foot-2, Revel would bring a completely different physical skill-set. He excelled in zone coverage at East Carolina, where he allowed a catch rate of 44.2 percent in 2023 and 38.1 percent during his abbreviated 2024.
Draft: Maxwell Hairston, Kentucky
Maxwell Hairston led the SEC with five interceptions and two pick-sixes in 2023. In 2024, he had one interception in seven games; he missed five games during the season with a shoulder injury. PFF charged him with a 65.7 percent completion rate in 2023 and 54.5 percent in 2024.
At 5-foot-11 1/4 and 179 pounds, he’s not short but he is a bit small. But “he’s absolutely going to fly” at the Scouting Combine, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said in projecting him as a potential first-round pick.
Wild Card
One of the top zone corners over the last several years is Rasul Douglas, who saved the Packers in 2021 when they grabbed him off the Cardinals’ practice squad after Jaire Alexander was injured.
Douglas intercepted five passes in 2021, four passes in 2022 and five passes in 2023, when his season was split between the Packers and Bills due to a trade-deadline deal.
Douglas will turn 30 toward the end of training camp. Alarmingly, he went from a 45.5 percent catch rate with the Bills in 2023 to 69.0 percent in 2024. However, few corners possess Douglas’ vision and anticipation. He’s not a No. 1 corner by any stretch of the imagination but he’d provide depth and takeaways.