Prospect Spotlight: Louisville Cornerback Jaire Alexander
Other than Nickell Robey-Coleman and Trumaine Johnson, the Rams are quite thin at corner. Also, Trumaine Johnson might not be playing for the Rams if he opts for free agency after two straight years under the franchise tag. The same can be said about Robey-Coleman as he is also an impending free agent after this year. The 2018 NFL Draft is a nice place to start looking for the Rams to add to their young, ferocious defense.
Wade Phillips’ defense excels with ball-hawking corners, his defense at Denver was ranked first in yards the last two years. He had top notch corners in Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. An underrated corner going into this draft with phenomenal ball skills is Louisville’s Jaire Alexander. Alexander’s measurables are 5’11’’ and 192 lbs. With this firm builds comes breakaway speed and great quickness at the corner position. Alexander is not only an asset on the defensive side of the ball, he has proven to been a quality returner too. Most of his playing time as a freshman was as a punt returner, he very solemnly played on the defensive side of the ball. In the little time he did play defense, Alexander got a pick and has two pass breakups. In 2016, he became a full-time starting corner for Louisville. Alexander really shined in the spotlight last year against the eventual national champions, the Clemson Tigers. He recorded two interceptions and forced a fumble for an all around good day against a highly touted Clemson receiver core. That core consisted of first round pick Mike Williams and one of this years highly regarded prospects, Deon Cain. In total Alexander recorded five interceptions and had nine pass breakups in 2016. He also showed up in the run game, ending with 39 tackles. Alexander also made some noise in the return game, taking a punt to the house. For 2017, Alexander opened the season as a preseason first-team All-American. Unfortunately though, 2017 has gotten off to an injury riddled start for him. Alexander played in the first game but was forced to watch on the sideline for the rest of September because of knee sprain. He did return in Thursday’s game against NC State but didn’t do much since he was still a little banged up. His one highlight was getting mossed by NC State wide receiver, Kelvin Harmon.
Jaire Alexander is expected to go within round one or two but it is unknown exactly where in those rounds. The Rams are most likely going to have a late pick since since they look like borderline playoff team right now. Alexander will be an excellent addition to this Rams defense as he will provide some certainty at the corner spot for the upcoming future.
– Christian Gotzman is a staff writer for cover32.com/Rams and covers the Los Angeles Rams. Like and follow on Follow @C_Gotzman Follow @cover32_LAR
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