Green Bay finished 10th in opponent passer rating last season. That was without Alexander for most of the season due to a shoulder injury, Stokes learning on the fly as a first-round pick and Douglas not getting on the field until mid-October.
With Alexander back in the starting lineup and capable of locking down any receiver in the NFL, opposing quarterbacks are going to have a hard time finding any breathing room.
“It’s the best secondary,” Alexander said last month.
Why?
“You’ve got me on there, first of all,” he said. “And then you’ve got ‘Sul – that’s primetime pick man; he gets all the picks. And you’ve got Stokes – young, up-and-coming savage.”
According to Sports Info Solutions, Alexander is the only cornerback in the NFL to allow a sub-50 percent completion rate each of the past three seasons. He returns to action with something to prove.
“I got goals I want to accomplish in this league, so I’m always going to have something to prove,” Alexander said. “If you want to be the greatest of all time, the best, you’ve always got to keep that chip, like (Charles) Woodson.”
No quarterback knows the skill of those cornerbacks better than Rodgers, who faced that group throughout training camp. He rarely threw the ball at Alexander and compared Douglas to Woodson a couple times.
Alexander is great, Douglas’ greatness last season doesn’t appear to be a fluke and Stokes has a chance to be great.
“You got one of the top corners in the game in Rasul, who’s having a hard time getting minutes in base. That tells you how good they are on the back end,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, Ja has been a lockdown guy all camp and 21 [Stokes] keeps getting better. If he learns how to catch the ball, he’s going to be a perennial Pro Bowler for us.”