Owings Mills, Md. – The Baltimore Ravens enabled Lamar Jackson's wish on Wednesday by signing the former corner of Green Bay Packers, Jaire Alexander.
The one-year contract with Alexander is worth a maximum of $ 6 million, including $ 2 million in incentives, said OSPN sources from Adam Schefter.
The addition of Alexander gives Baltimore one of the most talented seconds in the NFL and combines the two-time Pro-Bowler with Jackson, a close friend and former teammate in Louisville.
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After the Minicamp training on Tuesday, Jackson Ravens General Manager Eric Decosta made strong to sign and sign Alexander: “Go, Eric.”
“I love all of our corners,” said Jackson. “Don't get me wrong. But get him, Eric.”
After Alexander signed his deal with Baltimore, the Ravens released a video on Jackson's social media, which celebrated with Alexander by hitting hands and hugging him. Alexander and Jackson played together in Louisville from 2015 to 2017.
“Lamar made it happy. I think it made everyone happy,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh after the training on Wednesday. “It was an opportunity to become a better team today.”
The 28-year-old Alexander was released on June 9 by the Packers after two seasons injured in a row. As an all-Pro in 2020 and 2022, he played in only 34 possible 68 games since the beginning of the 2021 campaign. Alexander should earn $ 17.5 million this season, but none of it was guaranteed.
If Alexander can stay healthy, Baltimore will have one of the strongest defensive backgrounds in the league. Alexander joins a secondary level, which contains in the first round at Cornerback (Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins) and in safety (Kyle Hamilton and Malaki Starks) in the first round. The ravens will probably align Alexander and Wiggins on the outside and use Humphrey as a slot cornerback.
“A quote that was never said and probably never be said in the NFL history is:” We have too many corners that can cover, “said Humphrey.” I think that's a big problem. “
Baltimore has had one season in which his passage defense in the NFL took up 31st place and gave up 244.1 yards per game. But the Ravens increased the secondary level this off -season by hiring Chuck Pagano as Senior Secondary Coach, STARKS in the first round and now Alexander.
The selection of No. 18 of the 2018 draft defended a total of 287 duels, 12 interceptions and 70 passes.
Alexander was not made available to reporters.
“He was one of the best in this league since he got on,” said Hamilton. “To have someone like that, especially as DB, that's super valuable.”
