Here’s What Jaire Alexander Salary-Cap Decision Means in 2025, 2026

Through the NFL’s June 1 accounting, the Green Bay Packers could have split Jaire Alexander’s remaining salary-cap hit between 2025 and 2026.

To take advantage of the team’s cap space for 2025 and help with the team’s challenging cap for 2026, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst opted to take all his medicine for 2025.

The Packers released the former All-Pro cornerback on Monday. The finances:

2025: $16.15 million base salary, $650,000 in per-game roster bonuses, $700,000 workout bonus. Total salary-cap charge: $24.636 million.

2026: $18.15 million base salary, $650,000 in per-game roster bonuses, $700,000 workout bonus. Total salary-cap charge: $27.019 million.

If they had used June 1 accounting, which would have split the dead-cap hit between 2025 and 2026, the Packers would have saved about $17.12 million of cap space for the upcoming season. Because of the leftover signing bonus, he would have counted about $7.52 million against the cap in 2025 and $9.52 million in 2026. Instead, they took all $17,043,182 on this year’s cap, according to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.

“That will change here pretty quickly because we did some things to take more of that on this year than next year,” Gutekunst explained at Packers minicamp on Tuesday. “We’d like to keep next year’s open as much as possible, so that will change here in a little bit.”

So, what do those changes mean?

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers went from about $28.94 million in cap space to $35.50 million. In terms of available cap dollars, they went from 12th to sixth.

What’s noteworthy is 2026. With Alexander on the roster, the Packers were about $11.73 million in the hole. With every penny of Alexander’s contract off the ledger, they have about $14.40 million of cap space based on a 51-man roster. That’s 16th in the league, according to OTC.

“We feel very good about our cap situation, our flexibility to do things not only with our players here, but if anything comes across that we may want to do,” Gutekunst said. “Like we’ve talked about in the past, we’re in a pretty good spot right now. We’d like to keep it that way, but some things will come across today that you’ll see that we’ll be taking more of that on this year.”

The Packers had the cap space to keep Alexander and hope that he could stay healthy and return to elite form. Instead of rolling the dice on Alexander, they’ll roll the dice on a cornerback corps that includes only three experienced players.  

“I think obviously we’ve done that the past few years and it hasn’t really worked out for us,” Gutekunst said. “I think as we went through it, we went through a lot of different angles that might be right for the club, and this is kind of where we ended up. Again, it was no bad blood. It was just kind of one of those things where over the last couple years, it hasn’t worked out exactly like we’d wanted to, through no fault of anybody, just the injuries kind of took some games away from him.”

Gutekunst hoped he could get something for Alexander in a trade

“I think in these situations sometimes that’s the case. And I think the salary was a big part of that, too, but “somebody had to offer me something for me to trade him.”

Alexander’s contract made that impossible.

“I think in these situations sometimes that’s the case,” Gutekunst said, “and I think the salary was a big part of that, too.”

Alexander is free to sign with any team. Quarterback Jordan Love “definitely” hopes it’s with a team not on Green Bay’s schedule.

“The release of Jaire, it’s a tough one,” Love said. “It’s really tough losing a player of Jaire’s caliber and someone that has been here since I got here, someone that I was very close with, so it’s definitely tough. That’s how the NFL goes, there’s tough decisions that are made. It’s all about how we move on and grow from that, and love to see what happens with him and where he ends up.

“Got nothing but love for Jaire, loved my time being able to play with him, play against him every day. He’s a guy that made me better going against him. We’d talk after practice a good amount, just on what he’s seeing with me, you know someone who definitely believed in me from the get-go when I got my opportunity.”

What will the Packers do with their $35 million in cap space? A not-insignificant chunk of that money will be needed to sign a practice squad, pay for practice-squad elevations. But there will be plenty of money for contract extensions for the likes of Zach Tom, who is one of the best right tackles in the NFL, and starting linebacker Quay Walker. They are both scheduled to be free agents after the season. 

Whatever cap money is not used in 2025 can be rolled over to 2026.