It's kind of wild how much talk there's been about how the Packers will replace from Jaire Alexander despite the fact that, you know, he's still on the team. For basically the last month, everyone from Packers Insiders to Packers bloggers have hammered out words on what the secondary will look like without him, and yet he's out here training with Xavier McKinney and still very much collecting green-and-gold paychecks (I assume all NFL paychecks are themed).
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That hasn't stopped Brian Gutekunst and the rest of Green Bay's front office from making moves to overhaul the secondary, though. The big one – so far, at least – was bringing in former Raiders cornerback on a four-year, $48 million deal. The cornerback room could certainly use all the help they can get, but it's hard to view Hobbs as a true replacement for Alexander, especially when you start using the dreaded Football Reference comparison tool thingy.
But Football Reference has no power against the omnipotent Anonymous NFL Executive, and the latter is absolutely *in* on the idea of Hobbs replacing Alexander. In a recent roundup of kinda blah quotes from NFL execs compiled in The Athletic, one of said anonymous NFL execs explains why Hobbs is a great fit in Green Bay. And yes, of course the quote is exactly as on-the-nose as you're expecting it to be.
One random NFL exec has a wild Nate Hobbs-Jaire Alexander hot take
"Hobbs will help them,” another exec said. “He is not going to be a prima donna like Jaire Alexander. He is going to come in and play hard, and that is going to be big for them. The mentality is good. He is also a versatile nickel guy — a tough, physical piece who the defensive coordinator can move around and use in different ways.”
The funniest part of this? Absolutely nothing would change about that analysis if the executive had left the Alexander part out. So this was definitely a Packers executive, right? They're not even wrong about Hobbs – he'll definitely give Green Bay's secondary some much-needed versatility, but throwing random shots at Alexander feels both totally unnecessary and totally calculated. Although I guess if anyone knows about what being a prima donna entails, it's NFL executives.