Packers-Saints Inactives: Jaire Alexander Among Four Defensive Starters Out

The Green Bay Packers are down three starters in their secondary and the New Orleans Saints will be without four starters on offense.

Neither Green Bay Packers cornerback nor New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara will play on Monday night. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander is inactive for Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Saints, a fifth consecutive game on the sideline for the former All-Pro.

The Packers will try to clinch a playoff berth without four defensive starters. Linebacker Quay Walker and safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams are out, as well.

Alexander practiced all week as full participation. He’s coming off a torn PCL sustained two months ago at Jacksonville, so it wouldn’t be fair to say Alexander is a healthy scratch but it’s unusual for a starter to be a full participant for all three practices but not play.

“Potentially,” coach Matt LaFleur said after Saturday’s practice when asked if Alexander could play. “We’ll take a look at the tape, talk as a staff and then make a decision.”

The Packers are down three starters in the secondary. Bullard will miss a second consecutive game with an ankle injury. Williams was added to the injury report on Saturday with a quad injury and was questionable.

With Bullard and Williams dinged, Zayne Anderson is in line to make his first NFL start. For depth, the Packers elevated rookie safety Omar Brown from the practice squad. This will be the NFL debut for the undrafted free agent.

Receiver Malik Heath and rookie lineman Jacob Monk round out Green Bay’s inactives list.

The Saints will face the Packers without their starting quarterback (Derek Carr), star running back (Alvin Kamara), No. 1 receiver (Chris Olave) and top big-play threat (former Packers receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling), all of whom are inactive. So, Alexander’s absence might not be a huge issue.

However, even a little bit of playing time for Alexander in this game would have knocked off some of the rust for Sunday’s game at Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson and the 13-win Minnesota Vikings.

On the other hand, it’s a cool and damp night in Green Bay, meaning the Lambeau Field surface might be a bit slick. With the Vikings coming up on a short week, perhaps LaFleur is being cautious.

“I think it all comes back down to the preparation,” LaFleur said when asked how long it would take Alexander to return to form after a long layoff. “I don’t think you just magically return to form without competing and putting in the work in practice. But I do believe that if you do it in practice, then it’s going to transfer to the game.”

By keeping Alexander off injured reserve, he’s at least been able to practice.

Alexander has missed six of the last seven games with the injury. He returned after the bye to play at Chicago but made it through just 10 snaps against the Bears.

Alexander has played in only 40.2 percent of the snaps this season. That comes on the heels of playing 40.1 percent in 2023 and 20.3 percent in 2021.

Even while playing less than half the snaps this year, Alexander is second on the team with seven passes defensed.

Including missing this game, Alexander has played 34 of a possible 66 games the past four seasons.

The offense will get a lift with the return of second-year tight end Luke Musgrave, who missed the last 10 games with an ankle injury that required surgery.

“He’s got something that you can’t really coach in terms of just the speed he brings out on the field,” LaFleur said this week. “It’s not like we would go out there and play him 70 snaps, but if we could ease him back into it, I think that’d be really good for him and for us.”

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