The Green Bay Packers opted to move on from Jaire Alexander in June, releasing the two-time All-Pro cornerback after seven seasons with the franchise.
The 18th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft wasted no time reuniting with college teammate Lamar Jackson on the Baltimore Ravens, signing a deal that can be worth as much as $6 million with incentives. While Green Bay's pass defense looked great in Week 1, the same cannot be said for Alexander's new team.
They were torched by Josh Allen, who leads the league with 394 passing yards. Making matters worse, the Ravens allowed the Buffalo Bills to come back from a 41-25 deficit with under four minutes to play. Alexander, who played a huge part in the loss, shared his thoughts on the Week 1 collapse.
"I mean I wouldn't say it was a big [singular] problem," Alexander said, via Josh Tolentino of The Baltimore Sun. "We're playing against a good team, a good quarterback. That was the problem. It's Week 1, we've just got to learn about it."
Former Packers star Jaire Alexander weighs in on struggles in opener
Per Tolentino, Alexander said that while there are no excuses, he would've benefited from more practice time during camp. He missed time due to injury.
Alexander had a brutal showing, as his 29.8 PFF grade was the lowest of any Ravens defender. His rough night began with a third-quarter pass interference on fourth down that directly led to a touchdown two plays later.
The former Packer was particularly bad on the final drive of the game. He was beaten on back-to-back plays by Josh Palmer and Keon Coleman for 32 and 25 yards, respectively, allowing Buffalo to move from its own 34 to the Baltimore nine. On the latter play, Alexander tripped up the wide receiver with 38 seconds to go.
The touchdown-saving tackle ensured that the Ravens' high-powered offense would never touch the ball again. While it is no guarantee that Coleman wouldn't have slid at the goal line, if he had gone into the end zone, Baltimore would have gotten the ball back with just over 30 seconds to go and all three timeouts. Instead, the Bills were able to kneel out the clock before kicking a game-winning 32-yard field goal.
The Packers' reason for cutting Alexander was not about his ability, but instead, his availability. While he earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors in his last two full seasons -- 2020 and 2022 -- where he missed only one game, he combined to play just 18 of a possible 51 games in the three other seasons over that span.