Packer Central

Packers-49ers Inactives: San Francisco Down Eight Starters

Jaire Alexander and Edgerrin Cooper are among the Green Bay Packers’ inactives for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander tackles 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk. Neither will play on Sunday.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander tackles 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk. Neither will play on Sunday. / Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Cornerback Jaire Alexander and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper lead the Green Bay Packers’ inactives list for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Alexander (knee) and Cooper (hamstring) were ruled out on Friday’s final injury report and are in doubt for Thursday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

That’s a problem, though they’ll get no sympathy from the 49ers.

Quarterback Brock Purdy (shoulder), left tackle Trent Williams (ankle), defensive end Nick Bosa (hip/oblique) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (personal) are inactive. Plus, four starters are on injured reserve or the physically unable to perform list. Five, if you count the punter.

San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan’s message to his team?

“I think we've had a real good week of practice,” he told reporters on Friday. “I know it's disappointing. We knew there was a chance for Nick (and) I think the guys were a little surprised with Brock yesterday, but we addressed all that today and we're going to have 48 guys in uniform.

“I know our guys believe in themselves. I believe in them. We're missing two good players, definitely, but we've got a lot of good players out there. So, by no means do we not have a chance to win. We're going to go fight our tails off and expect this to be a real good game.”

For the Packers, Colby Wooden (shoulder) will play after missing last week’s win at Chicago. The other inactives are healthy scratches: safety Kitan Oladapo and offensive lineman Jacob Monk.

You could start a heck of a team with the list of players who are out for the 49ers.

Purdy finished fourth in NFL MVP voting last season, when he led the NFL in passer rating and was first in yards per attempt, third in touchdowns, fourth in completion percentage and fifth in yards.

He hasn’t been as efficient this year – he’s 15th in passer rating – but he’s sixth in passing yards and third in yards per attempt. He injured his throwing shoulder in last week’s loss to Seattle.

Journeyman Brandon Allen will start. A sixth-round pick by Jacksonville in 2016, he is 2-7 as a starter with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions in 16 career appearances. He has not started a game since 2021 or thrown a pass since 2022.

Williams has been a first-team All-Pro each of the last three years. Over the last two seasons, Pro Football Focus charged Williams with one sack – Week 2 of this season against Minnesota.

Bosa, has 44.5 sacks the last three seasons, including an NFL-high 18.5 in 2022, when he was first-team All-Pro. He suffered an oblique injury while sacking Seattle’s Geno Smith last week. 

Bosahas more quarterback pressures than all of Green Bay’s defensive ends combined, according to Pro Football Focus.

“Everyone talks about how great he is as a pass-rusher, and he’s one of the best in the NFL,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “His get-off, his power, his ability to create an edge on a tackle is elite. He can get after guys pretty good.

“But he’s also really, really good in the run game, too. Just his physicality – anytime he’s one-on-one with a tight end, that’s a problem. So, he’s a guy you have to be aware of wherever he’s at on the field to make sure you’re not in a bad play.”

Ward, who is out following the death of his daughter, had five interceptions and an NFL-leading 23 passes defensed last season to earn second-team All-Pro. He has allowed a catch rate of 55.9 percent this season, according to SportRadar.

If that’s not enough, five starters are on injured lists:

Receiver Brandon Aiyuk, a second-team All-Pro last year who caught 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, a Pro Bowler last season who had 11 sacks for the Eagles in 2022 and seven sacks for the 49ers in 2023.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who had two interceptions against the Packers in last year’s playoff game, tore his Achilles on the sideline during last year’s Super Bowl.

Safety Talanoa Hufanga was an All-Pro with four interceptions in 2022 and had three interceptions in 10 games in 2023 before suffering a torn ACL.

Punter Mitch Wishnowsky was 11th in net average last year and had 11 inside-the-20 punts with zero touchbacks this year.

Of San Francisco’s starting 11 on defense for its playoff victory over Green Bay, only linebacker Fred Warner and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir will start on Sunday.

Tight end George Kittle (hamstring) will be back in the lineup after missing last week’s loss to Seattle.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.