GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst believes the Packers have more cornerback depth than most NFL teams even after releasing two-time Pro Bowl selection Jaire Alexander.
But that didn’t stop them from exploring creative ways to boost that position as they opened their minicamp Tuesday.
One day after the Packers cut ties with Alexander, wide receiver Bo Melton spent part of practice working out at cornerback. Melton, the older brother of Arizona Cardinals cornerback Max Melton, already has showcased his versatility with his contributions on special teams.
“We just thought that if there is somebody that can potentially do both, he would be that guy,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I think a lot of it is just from his production on (special) teams and just his ability to make plays on teams.”
Melton has combined for 24 catches for 309 yards and one touchdown plus 11 carries for 75 yards over the past two seasons. He also had a touchdown in the Packers’ 2023 NFC divisional playoff loss at San Francisco.
Anything he could contribute on defense would help Melton distinguish himself in a receivers room that got crowded with the arrivals of first-round draft pick Matthew Golden and third-round selection Savion Williams.
“I think it’s just something we’re going to look at and see if it’s a possibility,” Gutekunst said. “There are very few guys who have done it in our league, there have been a few, and when a guy’s able to do that, it certainly helps your football team.”
Green Bay got accustomed to playing without Alexander when injuries caused him to play in just 34 of the Packers’ 68 regular-season games over the past four years. He appeared in only seven games last season.
Now the Packers know they won’t have him at all.
“He’s someone who definitely believed in me from the get-go when I got my opportunity. … It’s tough to see him go,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “I wish him nothing but the best, but right now, it’s moving on and seeing what’s next for our team.”
The Packers’ top three cornerbacks — Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine and Nate Hobbs — have 91 combined starts.
Thirty-two of Nixon’s 34 starts and all 19 of Valentine’s starts came with Green Bay. Hobbs started 38 games with the Las Vegas Raiders from 2021-24 before signing with the Packers.
“Some guys don’t even have two, (and) we’ve got three really good starting corners that we really like quite a bit,” Gutekunst said. “Again, I think we have more depth than most.”
But the only other Green Bay cornerbacks with any NFL playing experience on defense are Isaiah Dunn and Gregory Junior. Dunn played 114 defensive snaps for the New York Jets in 2021. Junior played 18 defensive snaps for Jacksonville in 2022 and 93 more in 2023.
“I think we know that three of those guys have gone out and played significant snaps, and then we’ve got a lot of young guys that are just kind of unknown,” LaFleur said.
Gutekunst said there was no “bad blood” regarding Alexander’s exit and said the Packers made the move because of the 28-year-old’s recent injury history.
Alexander was due for a base salary of $16.15 million in 2025 and $18.15 million in 2026 as part of the four-year, $84 million contract extension he signed in 2022. Releasing him cleared about $17 million in cap space.
“I just think for what that amount of money is, I think that’s a lot to pay for a guy who hasn’t been able to get on the field,” Gutekunst said. “Again, it’s not his fault. It’s just something that kind of transpired, so we just kind of were looking for something different.”
NOTES: OL Elgton Jenkins was present for minicamp but wasn’t practicing. Jenkins, who is moving from left guard to center this year following the offseason signing of Aaron Banks, hadn’t attended the voluntary organized team activities. “He’s helping out and coaching the other guys right now,” LaFleur said. “He’s worked on the side, but we thought it was best to keep him out today. … Love said he’s looking forward to the opportunity to match up with former Packers teammate Aaron Rodgers now that the four-time MVP has joined the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Packers play at Pittsburgh on Oct. 26. Love said the two of them have exchanged texts since Rodgers signed. “(I) told him that we’re going to need to swap jerseys after the game,” Love said. … Love said that his wedding is “coming up here soon, a couple weeks out.” Love is engaged to volleyball player Ronika Stone. “It’s been awesome,” Love said. “We’re excited.” ... The Packers signed former Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Cameron Young, a 2023 fourth-round pick from Mississippi State.
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FILE - Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander (23) walks on the field before a NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, file)
FILE - Green Bay Packers General manager Brian Gutekunst chats before an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Oct. 20, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, File)
FILE - Green Bay Packers' Bo Melton gets set at the line of scrimmage during an NFL wildcard playoff football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday he believes both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin truly want peace, as he welcomed the “brave” Ukrainian leader for talks at his Florida resort.
“The two leaders want it to end,” Trump said at the outset of the meeting at Mar-a-Lago. Before Zelenskyy arrived, Trump spoke with Putin by phone for more than an hour, and planned to speak with him again soon after.
Greeting Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said of him: “This gentleman has worked very hard, and is very brave, and his people are very brave."
Zelenskyy, by Trump's side, said he’d discuss issues of territorial concessions with Trump, which have so far been a red line for his country. He said his negotiators and Trump’s “have discussed how to move step by step and bring peace closer” and would continue to do so in the meeting.
Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s capital in the days before the meeting.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, said the call was initiated by the U.S. side, lasted over an hour, and was “friendly, benevolent, and businesslike.” Ushakov said Trump and Putin agreed to speak again “promptly” after Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy.
Trump and Zelenskyy met at Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, where the U.S. president is spending the holidays. Zelenskyy, who arrived in Miami in the morning, said the two planned to discuss security and economic agreements in their early afternoon meeting. He said he will raise “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv remain fiercely at odds over the fate of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
In overnight developments, three guided aerial bombs launched by Russia struck private homes in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to the head of the local military administration, Vadym Lakh. Three people were injured and one man died, Lakh said in a post on the Telegram messenger app.
The strike came the day after Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before planned talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, Ukrainian authorities said. Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in the early morning and continued for hours.
In advance of his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said Sunday that he spoke on the phone with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, filling him in “on the situation on the frontline and on the consequences of Russian strikes.” He posted on X: “Thank you, Keir, for the constant coordination!" Zelenskyy's office said he will speak by phone with allies after the meeting with Trump.
Trump, on Truth Social, said he and Zelenskyy will meet in the main dining room of Mar-a-Lago and the news media will be allowed in.
In a meeting Saturday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Zelenskyy said the key to peace is “pressure on Russia and sufficient, strong support for Ukraine.” To that end, Carney announced more economic assistance from his government to help Ukraine rebuild.
Denouncing the “barbarism” of Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv, Carney credited both Zelenskyy and Trump with creating the conditions for a “just and lasting peace” at a crucial moment.
“Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war,” Zelenskyy posted Saturday. “We need to be strong at the negotiating table.”
In response to the attacks, he wrote: “We want peace, and Russia demonstrates a desire to continue the war. If the whole world — Europe and America — is on our side, together we will stop” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down face-to-face also underscored the apparent progress made by Trump’s top negotiators in recent weeks as the sides traded draft peace plans and continued to shape a proposal to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed is “about 90% ready” — echoing a figure, and the optimism, that U.S. officials conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier this month.
During the recent talks, the U.S. agreed to offer certain security guarantees to Ukraine similar to those offered to other members of NATO. The proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop his country’s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection that would be designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy also spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said they discussed “certain substantive details" and cautioned “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and “the weeks ahead may also be intensive.”
The U.S. president has been working to end the war in Ukraine for much of his first year back in office, showing irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin while publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Long gone are the days when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he could resolve the fighting in a day.
After hosting Zelenskyy at the White House in October, Trump demanded that both Russia and Ukraine halt fighting and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow should be able to keep the territory it has seized from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said last week that he would be willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Kremlin had already been in contact with U.S.
“It was agreed upon to continue the dialogue,” he said.
Putin has publicly said he wants all the areas in four key regions that have been captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces haven’t captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all those demands.
The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO. It warned that it wouldn’t accept the deployment of any troops from members of the military alliance and would view them as a “legitimate target.”
Putin also has said Ukraine must limit the size of its army and give official status to the Russian language, demands he has made from the outset of the conflict.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told the business daily Kommersant this month that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of Donetsk -– one of the two major areas, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas region — even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.
Ushakov cautioned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Trump has been somewhat receptive to Putin’s demands, making the case that the Russian president can be persuaded to end the war if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land in the Donbas region and if Western powers offer economic incentives to bring Russia back into the global economy.
Kim reported from Washington and Morton from London. Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Karen Blake of Ft. Lauderdale, poses with a sign at the "Rally in Support of Ukraine" organized by the Ukrainian Association of Florida as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
President Donald Trump waves as he departs Trump International Golf Club, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A psychologist of a rescue team helps en elderly woman at the hospice which was damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescuers put fragments of a body of the victim into a plastic bag after Russian drone hit a multi-storey apartment building during massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
President Donald Trump pumps his fist at Christmas Eve dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold a news conference in Halifax, N.S. on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.(Riley Smith /The Canadian Press via AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
