Packers Predicted to 'Steal' Away $17.5 Million Star From Division Rival

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Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.

The Green Bay Packers could wind up stealing away one of their division rival’s top cornerbacks during 2025 NFL free agency when it comes time for them to re-evaluate the position after a season filled with injuries and inconsistencies.

The Packers have experienced problems at the cornerback position through the 2024 season. Eric Stokes, their 2021 first-round pick, has not returned to his once-promising career trajectory despite finally being healthy in 2024. Meanwhile, All-Pro starter Jaire Alexander has missed seven of their first 14 games with quad, groin and knee injuries.

With that in mind, Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Staff believes the Packers will seek out another starting boundary cornerback during the 2025 offseason, predicting they could “steal” 2024 breakout starter Byron Murphy Jr. from the Minnesota Vikings.

“It’d be nice to steal Murphy away from a division rival seeing as he’s having a career season in Minnesota this fall,” BR’s staff wrote on December 16. “The 26-year-old who turns 27 next month already has the most interceptions of his career with six and has surrendered a meager 69.4 passer rating when targeted, per Pro Football Focus.”

Byron Murphy Could Give Packers Another Ballhawk

Murphy — the No. 33 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft — has experienced a breakout for the Vikings defense in 2024 that could set him up for a huge payday in free agency.

After showing a great deal of promise with three interceptions and 13 pass breakups in his first season with the Vikings, Murphy has upped the ante in 2024 and doubled his interceptions to six through the first 13 games. He ranks third in the NFL behind only Packers star safety Xavier McKinney and Detroit’s Kelvin Joseph, who each have seven.

Murphy also has 12 pass breakups and a career-high 67 tackles heading into Week 15’s Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears, which has firmly landed him in the conversations for Pro Bowl and All-Pro recognition among the NFC’s cornerbacks.

Now, the Vikings will likely want to retain Murphy beyond the 2024 season. They even made him a contract offer before the start of the season, but they declined it and opted to play out the final year of his $17.5 million deal — a move that will now benefit him. If the Vikings are willing to meet his price, they can afford to make him one of the top-10 highest-paid cornerbacks in the NFL with their roughly $63.2 million in cap space.

Should Murphy reach free agency, though, the Packers will also have the resources to sign him to a contract deserving of his talents. They are projected to have $49.6 million in effective cap space for 2025, and while they are already paying top dollar ($21 million per year) to Alexander, adding another ballhawk alongside McKinney could be worth it.

How Will Packers Handle Jaire Alexander’s Future?

The Packers have largely avoided expensive free-agent signings under general manager Brian Gutekunst with a few exceptions during the 2019 and 2024 NFL offseasons. That tends to happen when a franchise’s modus operandi is drafting and developing talent and then locking down their best and brightest with long-term contract extensions.

To illustrate, the Packers’ five largest cap hits for the 2024 season are all former draft picks: Kenny Clark, Alexander, Jordan Love, Elgton Jenkins and Rashan Gary.

That said, how the Packers approach improving their cornerback room in 2025 could depend heavily on how they move forward with Alexander after the 2024 season.

Alexander — a two-time Pro Bowler — is still a high-level player for the Packers when he is on the field, but his availability has become a problem for the team in the two years since his four-year, $84 million contract extension has kicked in. He played just seven games in 2023 due to a combination of injuries and a one-game suspension and has already missed seven of the Packers’ first 14 games in 2024 with multiple injuries.

Gutekunst might prefer to see how Alexander responds in 2025 before making any drastic decisions about his future, but he will have the option to move on from him if he reaches the offseason and decides he can no longer trust his star corner’s availability.

Though it seems like a long shot, the Packers could designate Alexander as a post-June 1 cut in the offseason and save $17.5 million in cap space for 2025 and $19.5 million in 2026 while incurring identical dead-cap hits of about $7.86 million in each season. And in that scenario, it would make far more sense to weigh signing Murphy to a big deal.

Jordan J. Wilson is a sports reporter who covers the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. He has previously covered all levels of sports — high school, college and pro — for a variety of publications including The Indianapolis Star, The News-Gazette, Springfield State-Journal Register and Peoria Journal Star. More about Jordan J. Wilson