GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers apparently will have to make their entire postseason run without two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday that Alexander is undergoing surgery to repair the knee injury that has kept the 2018 first-round pick from playing for most of the past two months.
“Most likely, he’s going to be done for the rest of the year,” LaFleur said.
The knee injury first sidelined Alexander for a 24-14 loss to the Detroit Lions on Nov. 3. After the Packers had a week off, Alexander returned for a game at Chicago but played just 10 defensive snaps before the injury sidelined him for the rest of that 20-19 victory.
Alexander hasn’t played since, as he’s missed six straight games. Now he probably won’t be back at all this season.
“It’s the situation,” LaFleur said. “It stinks that we’re here, but we’re here.”
Alexander’s absence creates a major hurdle for the Packers in their bid to make a Super Bowl run as a wild card. The Packers (11-5) are slotted as the NFC’s No. 7 seed, which would force them to open the postseason at Philadelphia (13-3) and stay on the road for their entire playoff run.
The Packers still could earn the No. 6 seed if they beat the Bears (4-12) at home on Sunday while the Washington Commanders lose at Dallas.
Green Bay ranks 17th in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game. Its vulnerability in that regard was apparent Sunday as the Packers allowed Sam Darnold to throw for a career-high 377 yards in a 27-25 loss at Minnesota.
The Packers remain confident they can make a deep playoff run with the defensive backs they have available.
“I have full trust in the guys in our room,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “I’ve been saying for a long time. We have a lot of talented guys, a lot of guys who are smart and can adjust on the fly. I feel good about our group. Obviously, we have guys who are being called upon each week. I feel really good about this group and what we have.”
Alexander’s injury has resulted in more playing time for 2023 seventh-round draft pick Carrington Valentine and 2021 first-round pick Eric Stokes. Valentine played every defensive snap against the Vikings and had his second interception in his past three games.
“It’s really next-man up mentality,” Valentine said. “We’re always going to go out there and compete and just put our best foot forward.”
Alexander, 27, has been one of the league’s top cover corners when available for much of his career, but he has played just 34 regular-season games over the past four seasons.
He played just four games in 2021, before a shoulder injury knocked him out for the rest of that season. Alexander missed just one game the following season, but he played just seven games in 2023 and has appeared in seven more this season.
He missed three games with a back issue, six more with a shoulder injury and served a one-game suspension last season. This season, a groin injury sidelined him for two games before his knee problem arose.
’’I know how badly he wants to be out there,” Stokes said. “The moment I found out, I was just like, ‘Dang.’ I sent him a text. ‘I know how you feel. I know what type of player you is. I know you really want to be out there for us,’ and all that stuff. He said, ‘Anything y’all need help with, just hit me. I’m going to be there.'"
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FILE - Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander on defense against the Arizona Cardinals during an NFL football game, Oct. 13, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, File)
PHOENIX (AP) — From heartbreak and devastation to outrage, Emily Pike's tragic death is stirring heavy emotions and putting the spotlight to a crisis that has long plagued Native American communities, where a disproportionate number of people have been killed or have gone missing.
In the case of the San Carlos Apache teenager, she disappeared from her group home on the edge of a Phoenix suburb in late January.
Authorities posted her picture on social media, saying she was missing and had possibly run away. Just a couple inches shy of 5 feet tall, she was wearing a pink and gray shirt.
It was nearly a month later that sheriff's deputies in a neighboring county reported finding and identifying Pike's remains. It was more than 80 miles (129 kilometers) from where she was last seen.
Since then, news of her brutal death has reverberated through Indian Country and beyond. A crowd gathered Thursday at an intersection in Mesa, near her group home, to honor her life and to press for changes that might help curb the violence.
Dozens of people of all ages viewed the vigil's program on a large inflatable projector. Clad in red, they embraced, shielded candle flames on the windy night and held posters that read “No more stolen sisters” and “Justice for Emily Pike.”
“These tears that are shed are a part of a healing process,” said Mary Kim Titla, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Titla was wearing pink — Pike's favorite color. She said Pike had dreamed of becoming a veterinarian.
Advocates say the crisis stems from colonization and forced removal, which marginalized Indigenous people by erasing their culture and identity. Limited funding, understaffed police departments and a jurisdictional checkerboard that prevents authorities from working together have only exacerbated the issue.
Pike's case has drawn the attention of hundreds of thousands of people through social media. Some have shared photos of themselves, their mouths covered with a red handprint that has become emblematic of the movement to end the violence. Posts included the hashtags #NoMoreStolenSisters, #SayHerName and #JusticeforEmily.
In Wisconsin, organizers planned for their own candlelight vigil. Fliers in Colorado encouraged people to wear red, and Daisy Bluestar, a Southern Ute tribal member on Colorado's Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force, posted a video about Pike with the hashtag #ColoradoStandsWithYou.
The girl's basketball team at Miami High School in Arizona wore jerseys with “MMIW” and a red handprint on the back.
“We’re all mourning this terrible loss of a precious young girl. Emily really has become everyone’s daughter, granddaughter and niece,” Titla said.
Titla herself has three female relatives who went missing and were killed. She said the community has come together to honor Pike and to demand justice. This shared solidarity comes from a desire for healing from historical and generational trauma, she said.
“It affects so many people," Titla said, “and I think the reason is because we all know someone — it could be a relative, it could be a friend, it could be in our own tribal community.”
Pike's remains were found northeast of Globe, Arizona, the Gila County Sheriffs Office said.
Like many others, her case involves multiple agencies. Gila County is working with Mesa police, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mesa police typically don't investigate runaway reports, but the agency did list Pike as missing on its Facebook page two days after the group home reported she was gone.
Arizona's Department of Child Safety requires notification of a child's missing status to occur within a day of receiving the information. However, that requirement doesn't extend to tribal social services, according to Anika Robinson, president of the nonprofit foster care advocacy group ASA Now. Pike was in the custody of San Carlos Apache Tribe Social Services, which could not be reached for comment, at the time she went missing from the group home in Mesa.
Mesa police reported Pike as missing to the National Crime Information Center the evening of Jan. 27. Police have said it would have been up to the group home to contact her case manager who then would have contacted Pike's family or tribe.
The girl's mother, Steff Dosela, has said in interviews that she didn't hear about her daughter’s disappearance until a week later.
Robinson questioned why it took so long. “Imagine what probably had already transpired by that week,” she said.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2023 created a task force to identify policies for addressing the high rates of disappearances and killings among the Native American population. A final report is due in 2026.
Washington, New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin and Wyoming also have created task forces dedicated to the crisis.
President Donald Trump during his first term created the nation's first task force to begin looking at the problem, dubbing it Operation Lady Liberty. The Biden administration followed with a special unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. attorneys' offices in key areas began taking a closer look at unsolved cases, and top officials held listening sessions across the nation. Just last month, the federal government launched an initiative to help solve missing and unidentified person cases.
Tiffany Jiron, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, said more comprehensive law enforcement training that address jurisdictional challenges, increased funding for tribal programs that provide shelter, mental health resources and legal aid to impacted families and survivors and strengthened alert systems are among the policy solutions that advocates should continue to fight for to address the systemic crisis.
“As an Indigenous people, we are not invisible,” she said. “We deserve just as much attention from law enforcement. Our cases are involving real people, real families, real children.”
People attend a vigil for slain Native American teen Emily Pike in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow)
A sign lies on the ground at a vigil for slain Native American teen Emily Pike in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow)
People attend a vigil for slain Native American teen Emily Pike in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow)
A tribute to slain Native American teen Emily Pike adorns a fence near a vigil in her honor in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow)
People attend a vigil for slain Native American teen Emily Pike in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow)
