Packers GM's best trait is Green Bay's top weapon to get compensation in a trade involving cornerback Jaire Alexander

Brian Gutekunst is a scout at heart. Before being the Green Bay Packers general manager, he climbed the ladder on the scouting side of the front office, being a scout for more than a decade, then director of college scouting and director of player personnel.

And don't get this wrong, he is a truly solid talent evaluator. But curiously, this isn't his best trait as a general manager.

His ability as a negotiator is what stands out the most. And it will be necessary this offseason, with a complicated Jaire Alexander situation shaping up behind the scenes.

Why it's hard to trade Jaire

Jaire Alexander is slated to make $17.5 million this season, but none of that is guaranteed. In practicality, it seems like nobody in the NFL wants to pay him that much money.

The Packers have received interest from other teams, but Jaire's unwillingness to take a paycut has hindered a deal, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's reporter Tom Silverstein.

Because Jaire doesn't have guarantees left, his salary is nothing more than a starting point in conversations. The Packers will most likely trade or release him, so if nobody wants to absorb that deal, Alexander will be cut without getting anything from this current contract.

The Packers could theoretically pay a part of the salary to facilitate a trade, but that usually happens when there is guaranteed money in the deal, which is not the case. Unless it's a truly significant draft compensation, it doesn't make sense for Green Bay to pay an unnecessary amount to execute the trade—that would essentially be buying a draft pick.

From Alexander's perspective, there aren't many reasons to accept a paycut at this point. If nobody wants to pay him the full contract, it's smarter to wait for a release and choose his next destination as a free agent.

Gutekunst's history as a negotiator

Even though this is a difficult situation all around, Gutekunst has a great track record of extracting value under tough circumstances.

In 2022, he traded Davante Adams after applying a franchise tag for first- and second-round picks. Take a look at tag-and-trade examples since and you will see how difficult it was to pull this off. Edge rusher Brian Burns was traded from the Carolina Panthers to the New York Giants for a second-rounder and a mid-round swap, and cornerback L'Jarius Sneed went from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Tennessee Titans for a third-round pick.

The following season, there was the infamous narrative battle of leverage between the Packers and the New York Jets in the Aaron Rodgers saga. After all, Gutekunst made Joe Douglas give up a first-round swap and a second-round pick in 2023, plus a conditional first in 2024—bad luck with Rodgers' injury made it be a second-rounder as well, but the Packers ended up trading down to get Edgerrin Cooper and use the extra capital to trade up and select Evan Williams and Jacob Monk.

Gutekunst was even able to get a guaranteed pick by trading backup offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen to the Jacksonville Jaguars three years ago.

"You certainly have to have a walk-away point," Gutekunst said last year about his approach to trades. "We are all competitive in this business. When you get into those environments when you're trying to acquire a player, you gotta keep a level head. As you go into something like that, you need to have a walk-away point ahead of time, that serves you well. Certainly, I learned that from Ted Thompson and Ron Wolf."

Patience is everything

The only leverage point the Packers have over Jaire Alexander and interested teams is the timing. Alexander doesn't have any trigger date on his contract before Week 1, so the Packers can just keep him through August without any financial repercussions.

In the meantime, many things can happen. Alexander might get impatient and accept the paycut, or a team may feel a more pressing need to add a cornerback—whether it's because of injury, or simply because it couldn't attack the position in the draft.

Outside of locker room management, the Packers don't have any risk by waiting. And if a release will be the final chapter, Green Bay has no reason to anticipate it and make things easier for the new team—especially because it can very well be an NFC North rival.