Packer Central

Packers-Bears Inactives: Latest on Jaire Alexander, Evan Williams

The Green Bay Packers will get a lift on Sunday with the return of cornerback Jaire Alexander and safety Evan Williams against the Chicago Bears.

Bill Huber

Jaire Alexander at Soldier Field last season.
Jaire Alexander at Soldier Field last season. / Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
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CHICAGO – With the returns of cornerback Jaire Alexander and safety Evan Williams, the Green Bay Packers’ secondary will be at full strength for Sunday’s game against Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.

Alexander suffered a knee injury on the final play of the victory at Jacksonville in Week 8. He was inactive for the Week 9 loss to Detroit and had the Week 10 bye to get healthy.

At practice this week, he was limited participation all three days and questionable on the injury report.

About 10 minutes before the team announced the inactives, Alexander met with coach Matt LaFleur at the 20-yard line. Moments later, they were joined by defensive passing-game coordinator Derrick Ansley. LaFleur walked away and was replaced by defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, who hugged Alexander.

From there, Alexander joined his teammates for some pregame stretching.

Green Bay’s inactives are cornerback Robert Rochell, who was promoted from the practice squad on Saturday, safety Kitan Oladapo, offensive tackle Travis Glover and defensive tackle Colby Wooden. Wooden (shoulder) is the only player out due to an injury.

For the Bears, starting left guard Teven Jenkins is inactive. However, left tackle Braxton Jones, right tackle Darnell Wright and defensive end Montez Sweat will play. Jones and Wright were inactive for last week’s loss to New England, when the Bears allowed nine sacks.

With Alexander and Williams, Green Bay will have its No. 1 secondary available. Before Williams dropped out of the Jacksonville game with a hamstring injury, Hafley had settled on Alexander and Keisean Nixon as his cornerbacks, Javon Bullard in the slot, and Williams and Xavier McKinney as the safeties.

Alexander missed three games during the first half of the season, including NFC North showdowns against the Vikings (groin) and Lions (knee). The Packers lost both of those games at Lambeau Field.

Over the last four seasons, Alexander has played in 33 of a possible 61 games. He entered Sunday having played 61.8 percent of the defensive snaps.

He’s been excellent when healthy. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s allowed a catch rate of 56.0 percent. He’s second on the team with two interceptions and tied with McKinney for first with seven passes defensed.

“I think he’s done a really good job. I thought he got better and better as he got going,” Hafley said this week. “And he just changes a lot of things that we can do. Some people don’t even want to throw to his side, which helps out a lot. He’s obviously able to make plays on the ball. There’s always the threat of him taking it away.

“So, I think he’s one of the best. Hopefully, we’ll see that again really soon.”

According to Pro Football Focus, all of Green Bay’s other cornerbacks have allowed catch rates of at least 66.7 percent. Alexander, Nixon and Eric Stokes have received the most playing time. Nixon has allowed a catch rate of 68.4 percent with four touchdowns and Stokes of 67.6 percent and two touchdowns.

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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.