GREEN BAY, Wis. – The decision to release cornerback Jaire Alexander will have a big impact on the Green Bay Packers’ finances.

Alexander in 2025 was due a base salary of $16.15 million. That has been wiped off the books, as were $650,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $700,000 workout bonus. Similarly, in 2026, Alexander’s $18.15 million base salary, $650,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $700,000 workout bonus are no longer on the ledger.

Alexander’s cap charges had been about $24.64 million for 2025 and $27.02 million for 2026.

Because of June 1 accounting, the Packers will save about $17.12 million of cap space for the upcoming season, with the dead-cap hit remaining from his $30 million signing bonus split between 2025 and 2026. That means Alexander will count about $7.52 million against the cap in 2025 and $9.52 million in 2026.

Just like that, the Packers are awash in cap space. The Packers already were in good shape for 2025. Now, according to Sportrac, they have the fourth-most cap space at about $45.43 million.

The Packers were in a challenging spot for 2026. According to OverTheCap.com, they were about $11.73 million in the hole for 2026. With about $17.49 million in cap savings and what should be a considerable salary-cap rollover, they should be in decent shape for what could be a busy offseason.

After the upcoming season, linebacker Quay Walker, receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, offensive linemen Zach Tom, Rasheed Walker and Sean Rhyan, and backup quarterback Malik Willis are among the key players scheduled to be free agents.

Tom, in particular, will be a budget-buster as he almost certainly will become the fourth right tackle to be rewarded with a contract in excess of $20 million per season. Spotrac, for instance, forecasts a four-year contract worth more than $86 million – or about $21.7 million per season.

The Packers won’t keep them all – preemptively, they added two offensive linemen and drafted two receivers this offseason – but Tom is a premier player at a premium position and general manager Brian Gutekunst has said he wants to keep 2022 first-round picks Walker and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt.

Gutekunst activated the fifth-year option on Wyatt, which will keep him with the team through 2026, but chose not to with Walker in favor of signing him to an extension.

Tom and Walker presumably will be first in line for contract extensions, with the 2025 space giving the Packers plenty of room to maneuver.

“I think you’re very aware of those things,” Gutekunst said before the draft. “We haven’t started any of those discussions yet but you have to be aware of where your football team is. I do think maybe earlier on in my career, where you might be looking three, four, five years out, now you’re really looking two to three with the way the cap is moving.

“Whenever you go into whether it’s free agency, the draft, it’s never looking at one year. It’s never looking at just that season coming up. It’s usually looking at, at least, the next two.”

The salary-cap space is great but the cap doesn’t cover No. 1 receivers or break up passes. When Alexander played, he was fantastic, but he missed double-digits games three of the past four seasons and played less than one-third of the snaps last season.

Alexander was paid $1.4 million per tackle last season, the second-most expensive among NFL corners, according to OverTheCap.com. With a total of two interceptions, seven additional breakups and no tackles for losses, he earned $2.33 million per impact play, the sixth-most expensive among corners.

Still, the players hoped the Packers and Alexander would find a way to make it work.

“We would all like him back,” All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney said. “I talk to him every day, pretty much. Just try to stay connected with him. Obviously, we’ve developed a great relationship with each other. But my thing that I always try to talk about is that’s his own situation and I want the best for him.

“So, at the end of the day I’m going to be behind him regardless of what the situations going on. We’ve developed a relationship good enough off the field to where it’s like I just want what’s best for you and I’m going to be there regardless. I’ve been vocal about that with him. Like I said, we good friends. But we all want him here, but however that situation plays out, that’s how it plays out. I just want whatever is best for him.”

The Packers will move forward with Nate Hobbs, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine as the front-runners for the top three spots at corner.

Hobbs, who the team signed to a four-year, $48 million contract in free agency, is the most expensive player in terms of total dollars. Nixon is the most-expensive in terms of 2025 cap dollars at $6.84 million. Valentine, a seventh-round pick in 2023, will earn a base salary of $1.03 million as part of his rookie contract.