The Green Bay Packers will not have Jaire Alexander against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football, but at least the depth has just received a significant bump. Backup cornerback Corey Ballentine, who was questionable because of a knee injury, is officially active and will play against the Seattle Seahawks.
Ballentine had gotten injured on the first play of the Miami Dolphins game two weeks ago and missed the matchup against the Detroit Lions. He was limited at practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
However, Ballentine practiced at full capacity on Friday, and the Packers decided not to elevate any cornerback from the practice squad for gameday, strong indications that Ballentine would be good to go.
The cornerback depth is particularly pressed because safety Javon Bullard, who has been the starting nickel, is also out with an ankle injury.
With that, the Packers most likely option is to play Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes as boundary cornerbacks, moving Keisean Nixon inside to the slot. Evan Williams and Xavier McKinney would be the deep safeties.
Another option is to play big nickel, with Zayne Anderson playing instead of Stokes. With that, Nixon and Valentine would play outside, with McKinney as a deep safety. Evan Williams and backup Zayne Anderson, who played fairly well against the Lions last week, could play both in the slot or the second safety spot.
The healthy cornerback group has Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, Eric Stokes, Corey Ballentine, and Robert Rochell.
Offensive issue
The other Packers player not available yet who did not show up on the inactive list is tight end Luke Musgrave. That happens because the second-year player is still on the injured reserve, although the Packers opened up his 21-day practice window earlier this week.
Tucker Kraft, Ben Sims, and John FitzPatrick are the available tight ends for this game.