Green Bay Packers Select Jaire Alexander

Jaire Alexander became the first Louisville player to come off the board in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Originally three star prospect committed to play his college football career at Charlotte, with his only other offers coming from UConn, Marshall, Elon, Furman, Ball State and a pleothra of other low-majors, Jaire Alexander eventually ended up falling into the lap of Bobby Petrino and the Louisville football program.

Alexander made a name for himself in his freshman season, mostly as a punt returner, before bursting onto the national scene in his second year at Louisville after a breakout season including a team high five interceptions. Cards fans expected big things out of the ball-hawking corner in his junior season, but injuries kept him out from most of the season, and really hampering the Cards chances of making a big-time bowl.

Jaire Alexander declared for the 2018 NFL draft, deciding to skip the team’s bowl game against Mississippi State (a controversial decision at the time), even after playing in just four games. But after an extremely strong combine performance, which included a 4.38 – 40 yard dash, and a 35 inch vertical leap, Alexander began shooting up draft boards.

Over the last several weeks Alexander has been one of the most talked players on the defensive side of the ball, and was in the running for being the first cornerback taken. Tonight we saw that all come to fruition after he was selected by the Green Bay with the 18th selection, after they traded back from the 14th pick.

The trash-talking, ball hawking corner overcame a lot of talk of being injury prone, after missing the majority of last year, as well as being too small to be successful in the NFL at 5’10, 195 pounds.

During three seasons at Louisville, Alexander finished with 77 tackles, 15 pass deflections and seven interceptions while being named to the All-ACC second team defense in 2016-17.

Alexander will join Tramon Williams and Kevin King on the Packers cornerback depth and should have a great opportunity to compete for a significant amount of playing time right away. The Packers have had a lot of struggles over the last several years in their secondary with both injuries and poor play. Grabbing Alexander makes a lot of sense for General Manager Brian Gutekunst, Head Coach Mike McCarthy and first year Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine.

TheGreen Bay Packers Director of College Scouting Jon-Eric Sullivan talked with Wes Hodkiewicz of the Packers official website about what the Packers say in former Cardinal Jaire Alexander saying,

"“Jaire is a guy we targeted all along. We liked him from the outset. He’s very much a competitor. I think you can see that in his play. He’s twitchy. He has really good ball skills. He can play inside and outside. He’s a very good punt returner. He’s the kind of person we wanted to add to the locker room.”"

At this point it seems most likely that Alexander will play in the nickel corner role for the Packers defense, as Tramon Williams and Kevin King have are the likely starters in 2018-19. However, that doesn’t mean Alexander won’t be on the field. I would fully expect to see Alexander be an early

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contributor, especially with Pettine allowing matchups to dictate his defensive scheme instead of using a traditional 3-4 or 4-3 defense. Alexander will bring an instant punch of physicality, and more importantly speed that has been missing from the Packers over the last several seasons.

Alexander also could see some time as a punt returner for the Packers, an area in which he excelled in during his time at Louisville. Over the course of his career Alexander totaled 424 total yards and one touchdown on punt returns.

One of the coolest moments of the night came shortly after the Baltimore Ravens selected Lamar Jackson late in the first round. Check it out for yourself… and try not to smile.

The bromance is real.

Jaire Alexander was the 6th first round pick for the Louisville football program since 2014, joining Calvin Pryor, DeVante Parker, Teddy Bridgewater, Marcus Smith, and Sheldon Rankins.

Next: Lamar Jackson Ready to Prove Doubters Wrong

Be sure to stay tuned to Lombardi Ave and Dairyland Express of the FanSided network for updates on Jaire Alexander throughout the 2018-19 NFL season.