The salary cap necessitates every NFL team to make brutal decisions on its roster year after year. That's nothing new, but it still stings when you have to cut former high draft picks and/or big-money players to be cap compliant, or even to just have the flexibility to build your roster. The Green Bay Packers made a really tough decision when they cut veteran cornerback and former first-round pick Jaire Alexander, who promptly signed with the Baltimore Ravens to a team-friendly deal.
That was a bitter pill to swallow, but in hindsight, it might have been the move that let the Packers ultimately make the blockbuster trade to acquire Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys.
The Packers saved more than $17 million on the salary cap by releasing Alexander after June 1, and they needed over $21 million to add Parsons to the roster.
Packers cutting Jaire Alexander helped them land Micah Parsons
After adding Parsons to the roster, the Packers have just over $14.5 million in available cap space. They can find other ways to free up some space in the meantime, but the combination of cutting Jaire Alexander as well as accounting for over $18 million in dead money from moving Kenny Clark really gave the Packers just enough flexibility to swing this trade.
And when it comes to adding a player of Parsons' caliber, you do what you need to do if it means moving heaven and earth to make it happen. Unless you're the Cowboys, of course.
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The decision to cut Alexander after already moving on from Eric Stokes in free agency was not exactly unanimously well-liked. The Packers had to do what they had to do with Stokes, who was rarely available in his four years with the team, but the saga with Alexander was incredibly frustrating in its own right.
The team significantly weakened its cornerback group on paper, even moving Bo Melton to the defensive side of the ball to try to make ends meet, for lack of a better term.
But clearly, GM Brian Gutekunst and the coaching staff in Green Bay are not nearly as concerned about the cornerback position as most fans were going into the offseason. And it's not like they have no one back there.
The Packers were able to maneuver their available cap space by giving Zach Tom a well-deserved extension, and then they somehow convinced the Cowboys to trade Parsons within the NFC. It was a masterclass by Gutekunst on making difficult decisions when necessary, and being ready to strike when the iron is hot.