Landis Alexander spoke with ESPN Wisconsin for 13 minutes to clear up rumors about his son.
After former Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander signed with the Baltimore Ravens, Alexander’s father, Landis Alexander, paid a visit to ESPN Wisconsin to set the record straight on what has happened with his son over the last year. In a 13-minute interview, the elder Alexander dispelled several theories that have developed over recent weeks.
Immediately, Landis stated that “the structure [of a renegotiated contract] was more of the problem than the money.” When he was asked if Jaire would have stayed with the Packers had the team handed him the same one-year, $4 million offer with $2 million in incentives, Alexander replied, “Yes.”
That’s going to be tough for some Packers fans to hear, as the immediate reaction to Alexander’s contract numbers on social media were responses from people who believed that Alexander wasn’t going to re-sign with Green Bay at any number, let alone less promised cash than Keisean Nixon is under contract for in 2025.
So why does contract structure matter in this case? First of all, Landis claimed that “all the money” in the Packers’ deal came in the form of week-to-week roster bonuses. As long as Alexander played these games, the cash flow wouldn’t be too different than a player’s salary (game checks), but this money would be taken off the table had he missed time with injury. On top of that, salary for vested veterans is guaranteed if they are able to make the Week 1 roster, while roster bonuses aren’t. So, even non-guaranteed salary converts to guaranteed salary for veterans who make the final roster, but a roster bonus structure was one way Green Bay could have worked around that roster mechanic.
This true week-to-week option for the Packers would have also turned Alexander into a much more appealing asset, one who could have been traded or even released at mid-season without any extra dead cap associated with the move. Landis believes that Green Bay ultimately wanted to trade him, rather than have him play out the season. If this is the case, Alexander, presuming he didn’t get the team to agree to the hyper-rare no-trade clause, wouldn’t have been able to control where he ended up landing.
Beyond just the contract details, Lanis also stated that the Buffalo Bills were the team that went the furthest with the Packers in trade talks. He then mentioned that “had [the team] taken [Alexander’s PCL] injury seriously,” the cornerback would have been back to play in the postseason this year. According to Jaire’s father, Alexander’s PCL injury recovered on the projected timeline, but it was later discovered that previous injuries, stressed by the 2024 PCL injury, led to issues in the recovery process. It’s Landis’ belief that had the team scoped Alexander’s knee earlier, everyone involved would have been more educated on Jaire’s knee issue, and he could have returned to the field in 2024. Instead, Alexander played just 10 snaps after Week 8.
If you’d like to listen to the full interview on ESPN Wisconsin, you can find it in the YouTube video linked below: