How the Packers found, scouted and drafted star CB Jaire Alexander, as told by those who played a part in it - Chuyên Trang Chia Sẻ Kiến Thức Thời Trang Mới Nhất

Joe Hueber was in his first year as a college scout for an NFL team when he added an undersized cornerback to the Green Bay Packers’ watch list in September 2017.

Not since drafting Terrell Buckley fifth overall in 1992 had the Packers touched a corner under 5 feet, 11 inches.

“Our history here is we try to get taller, longer corners,” said Packers co-director of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan, who has been with the team since 2003. “That’s just what we like. It’s a big man’s game, really, at that position.”

But Hueber’s grade on this one was so high that Sullivan and Brian Gutekunst, at the time transitioning into the general manager role in place of the late Ted Thompson, had to see what all the commotion was about.

Indeed, Jaire Alexander was an exception.

Hueber, a college scout covering the Midwest region for the Packers, first watched Alexander play at the University of Louisville that summer during the Cardinals’ training camp. Louisville didn’t advertise Alexander much to him, only that he had a couple preseason accolades and might test the NFL waters if he had a good year.

Sullivan had watched Alexander in person that August, but left Louisville after a light practice knowing only how Alexander was built and not much else. Alexander stood about 5-10 coming off a true sophomore season for the Cardinals in which he registered an impressive five interceptions and nine passes defensed in 13 games but had somewhat of a sporadic season overall at 19 years old.

“I remember Joe saying, ‘Hey, I really like what I see, but it’s a little up-and-down, a little bit roller-coasterish, but he had a productive year last year,’” Sullivan said.

When Sullivan dove into Alexander’s 2016 tape, he was floored. One play in particular stood out.

No. 5 Clemson, led by quarterback Deshaun Watson, hosted No. 3 Louisville, led by QB Lamar Jackson, in 2016. Both teams were 4-0. With Louisville leading 7-0 early in the second quarter, Clemson had a first-and-10 on the Cardinals’ 15-yard line. Watson faked a handoff while current Chargers star receiver Mike Williams darted up the field 9 yards before breaking left on a slant into the end zone. Alexander was behind him initially but took advantage of a slightly errant throw to catch up and intercept the pass (the play begins at 2 minutes, 24 seconds in the video below).

“His ability to plant and drive and close on something in such an urgent, explosive fashion,” Sullivan said, “you just don’t see it all the time. … I was very adamant about the fact, like, we have got to go back and watch ’16 to see what this kid is. It was premier, his ability to close on the ball, shrink space, his speed, his recovery speed and just his overall competitiveness.”

Gutekunst, who has been with the Packers since 1998, had plenty on his plate as he prepared to become the franchise’s GM. But Sullivan wouldn’t stop hounding him to look closer at a cornerback the old Packers might never have considered.

Alexander missed four of the first five games of the 2017 season after spraining his knee in the season opener, but Hueber felt Alexander’s 2016 tape, which also featured his prowess as a punt returner, was impressive enough that he deserved the Packers’ attention even while sidelined.

Jaire Alexander was banged up for much of the 2017 season, finishing with one interception in six games. (Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Hueber wasn’t sold that Alexander would enter the draft early, though. He thought Alexander might use his senior year to put “2016-esque” play on tape instead of going pro coming off an injury-shortened 2017 season, but that November he got word that Alexander was fully healthy and ready to play.

“So I hustled down there and went to their game against Virginia, watched him go through warmups and it was really, really impressive just watching him move around, watching him naturally play the ball, and he had a good game that day, too,” Hueber said. “That’s when I kind of went back and started to really study him.

“There are plenty of guys who are 3 inches taller than Jaire and might even run faster, but you see them every Sunday, guys like Aaron (Rodgers) feed off of that because they don’t know when to break off a route, when to jump a route, when to get their head around going down the field. And that was one thing that really stood out to me about Jaire is he just had that split-second instinct of knowing, ‘Hey, they’re going underneath here, I can jump this. Hey, this is a double-move, let me get vertical,’ and that was the thing, at least for him, that really stood out to me at first.”

Trained by the legendary former Packers general managers Ron Wolf and Thompson to evaluate talent, Gutekunst was skeptical Alexander, because of his height, could play outside corner in the NFL like he did at Louisville.

To make matters more complicated for the Packers’ talent evaluators, Alexander missed not only those four games in 2017 but also two more after that because of the knee sprain and a broken bone in his hand, finishing his junior season with only one interception and four passes defensed.

“There was a lot of busting of balls,” Gutekunst said. “He’s short, he’s hurt, all this kind of stuff.”

While there wasn’t much to marvel at on tape from the 2017 season, the Packers were sold on Alexander once they watched him at the combine. Gutekunst said Wolf, the Packers’ GM from 1991-2000, was a big believer in strongly weighing the 20-yard shuttle and three-cone drill times when evaluating defensive backs. Both Wolf and Thompson preached the need to see prospects in person rather than strictly on tape to truly evaluate them. Respectively, Alexander ran a 3.98 (third among cornerbacks) and 6.71 (fifth among cornerbacks) at the combine.

“He just ripped those apart,” Gutekunst said.

“I remember Brian coming to me and being like, ‘I’m in. I see it,’” Sullivan said.

“He’s one of the most interesting players that I’ve ever been around.” -Aaron Rodgers

This is a collection of stories about Jaire Alexander, one of the most unique personalities in the league — and one of the most talented players, too. | @mattschneidman

— The Athletic NFL (@TheAthleticNFL) November 18, 2020

Gutekunst was no stranger to draft room chaos, having worked the phones during past drafts in the Thompson regime alongside Eliot Wolf, Ron’s son and a former Packers front office executive. A week before his first draft in charge in 2018 and holding the No. 14 overall pick, he discussed with New Orleans a possibility of a trade. The Saints, who owned the 27th pick, wanted University of Texas-San Antonio defensive end Marcus Davenport.

The Packers had five players they would be comfortable taking with their first pick (Gutekunst would not share the four names besides Alexander on the record). He knew there was risk trading back to No. 27, but he felt the chance to add a second first-round pick in 2019 was too valuable to bypass. They traded No. 14 to the Saints for No. 27, New Orleans’ fifth-rounder (which the Packers used to trade up and select inside linebacker Oren Burks in the third round) and a 2019 first-rounder (which the Packers used to trade up and select potential Pro Bowl safety Darnell Savage Jr.) Gutekunst knew he wanted to trade back up in the first round from No. 27 for one of those five, but he just didn’t know if he would be able to get back up far enough to do so.

Gutekunst was willing to trade all the way back up to No. 16 since he felt he needed to get in the Nos. 16-20 range for one of the five players he wanted. He could get only as high as No. 18; Seahawks GM and former Packers executive John Schneider dealt his first-round pick to the Packers for their first-, third- and sixth-round selections.

Gutekunst knew Alexander’s recent injury history presented a risk, but he felt the Packers were investing in a top-10 talent. Alexander said in 2018 that the pick surprised him because he didn’t have any contact with the Packers.

That “risky pick” has become one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, and he’s entering only his fourth season at 24 years old.

“It’s hard to set a bar that high, right?” Hueber joked. “We should’ve drafted a bust at first so I could work my way up.”

“To have the conviction that we had on him, kind of go against the grain a little bit and take a shorter corner, and then for him to become what he’s become, it’s satisfying and it’s good for business because he’s obviously a really good player, but he’s a guy that loves ball,” Sullivan said. “So you’d think that we would have him for years to come.”

Speaking of which, when asked about contract extension talks, Gutekunst declined to delve into specifics but said, “Certainly he’s a really important player that at some point we’ll head down that road.” Alexander has two years remaining on his rookie deal, and if he replicates his 2020 performance this season, could become the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history next year.

In the meantime, Alexander is tasked with following up a season in which he earned second-team All-Pro honors and established himself as one of the game’s elite lockdown corners.

Jaire Alexander allowed fewer than 30 yards in pass coverage in 13 games this season

Most in the NFL 🔒 😤 pic.twitter.com/KyGYRxKj4M

— PFF (@PFF) February 3, 2021

Alexander had only three interceptions combined in the 2019 and ’20 regular seasons, though he added two in the 2020 NFC Championship Game against the Buccaneers. The next step en route to being the game’s best corner, Sullivan said while adding he might already be No. 1, is taking the ball away more.

Even if his game isn’t perfect just yet, he hasn’t done too bad for that undersized, injured corner the Packers took a chance on.

“Obviously you’re paying the guy to cover,” Sullivan said. “That’s what you’re paying him for, but it’s like Charles Woodson — I mean, I’m not comparing Jaire to Charles, I’m not saying that — but like Charles Woodson, was he a hell of a corner? Hell yeah, but he was a hell of an all-around football player. He could take the ball away in the air, he could strip it out, he was a phenomenal tackler, he could blitz.

“Jaire’s got some of that to him.”

(Photo of Jaire Alexander: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)