Packers CB Jaire Alexander has not been impactful enough to be as brash as he is
Supreme confidence is a massive part of being a skill player in the NFL, but it's especially important at cornerback, where you need to be able to bounce back quickly after being burned in today's offense-happy league.
That's part of the charm of Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander. The Packers took him No. 18 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft and he has the confidence and swagger of a first-rounder.
In 2018 and 2022, his two Pro Bowl seasons, it's worth noting that he's also backed up his talk with some walk.
The brash confidence is great when he backs it up, but on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, his attitude could have cost the Packers in a big way.
Alexander pulled a "wedding crashers" on the pregame coin toss, unexpectedly walking out with the team's captains before the game. That would be abnormal on its own, but then the bombastic cornerback took it a step further and actually called tails and upon winning, said "I want our defense on the field."
Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports explains why that could have been a massive problem for Green Bay:
Instead of kicking or returning, teams are actually deciding when they want the choice to kick or return to open a half. When one team says "We'll receive," that's fine; they're just saying they are making the choice now and would like to receive the ball.
But you must never, ever say, "We'll kick." Because an official might take that as deciding you are making the choice to open the game with a kick and then the other team will make its choice at the start of the second half, at which point they will obviously choose to receive, resulting in your team kicking off to start both halves. That's why players always say "defer," because they are deferring their team's choice to the second half.
The Packers were lucky that head coach Matt LaFleur had told the referees ahead of the game that had they won the coin flip, they would choose to defer.
Had the referee interpreted Alexander as choosing to kick off after winning the flip, though, there was a scenario in which the Panthers could have gotten the ball to start both halves.
In a game Green Bay won 33-30, that could have been the difference between winning and losing, as well the difference in between making the playoffs and not making them. With the win, Green Bay is now 7-8 and very much so on the bubble.
All is well that ends well for Green Bay, but LaFleur wasn't happy with Alexander after the game, calling the move "a big mistake".
Had a Packers legend such as Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers done the same thing in their prime it still would have been seen as a massively boneheaded decision — and Alexander is no Hall of Famer, despite his two Pro Bowl seasons.
That's something even Deion Sanders would have had a hard time pulling off, and Alexander is no Sanders.
Simply put, Alexander hasn't been impactful enough, especially during this injury-plagued regular season, to be as brash as he is.
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