Greer Martini earns his way onto Green Bay Packers with tryout

Because interceptions aren’t a real common event in the National Football League, such statistics vary greatly from team to team and from year to year.

Having spent a lot of time on airplanes over the past few weeks, Jaire Alexander decided to make his time in the air more productive. He also told him he should have won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back.

Clay Matthews #52 of the Green Bay Packers celebrates after a sack against the Michael Vick #7 of the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2011 NFC wild card playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field on January 9, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Josh is my guy”.

Yeah, it appears these two are going to get along just fine. It doesn’t matter if you were the top pick, or picked at all. In 2009, Charles Woodson had eight, Nick Collins had six, and Tramon Williams and Atari Bigby had four each. Same with Davon House.

Cornerbacks Jaire Alexander, Josh Jackson and linebacker Oren Burks-the Packers’ first three consecutive selections-are the only remaining unsigned players from their class. He pointed out the success he had after leaving Green Bay and closed by adding, “Anything is possible”. “Push everybody else around us”, Jackson said.

It wasn’t flawless, as a first practice never is, but they’re off to a strong start. One of the things Pettine is a fan of is playing matchups from single high looks – most famously with Darrelle Revis and the Jets in 2009.

“That’ll definitely be a pick here coming up”, Alexander said. The defensive end is excited to be part of the Packers camp. “You have to make certain adjustments and over the years those adjustments weren’t made”. If Jaire Alexander can avoid injury, his skills and abilities should help the Packers fill a need and hopefully help to change a weakness into a strength.

Maybe the 62 percent goal and the 15-20 interception target is too much to envision. Alexander had five in his best college season in 2016.

“That’s my boy”, Jackson said of his draft companion. “Obviously, there’s still work to be done but I’m definitely looking forward to working on that”.

How so? Not only did Gutekunst violate the Packers’ long-standing (albeit unwritten) rule about drafting short cornerbacks when he took the 5-foot-10¼ Alexander with the 18th overall pick, but as a freshman at Louisville, Alexander’s position coach just happened to be – wait for it – Buckley. In PFF’s data, we’ve seen that our pass-coverage grades have the second-strongest correlation to winning after passing grades and if both Alexander and Jackson end up at 80.0-plus, Green Bay’s defense will have seen a transformation on par with the Saints from a year ago. We both putting in work.