Jaire Alexander explains why he left the Eagles last season

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - AUGUST 07: Jaire Alexander #23 of the Baltimore Ravens warms up before the game against the Indianapolis Colts during the NFL Preseason 2025 game at M&T Bank Stadium on August 07, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images One of the oddities of the 2025 Philadelphia Eagles season was when the Birds traded for Jaire Alexander and he never ended up playing a single game for them. Alexander was set to make his Eagles debut at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, the team that selected him with a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Instead, he didn’t even travel with the Eagles to that game after he announced he was stepping away from football. In a Wednesday article for The Players’ Tribune , Alexander detailed the events of his short-lived Philly tenure: Then one afternoon my agent calls me up and tells me that some teams are considering trading for me. A few days later I’m walking into the Eagles facility in Philly.

Since I hadn’t been suiting up for games at that point, and was practicing less, I was actually feeling pretty good when I came over to the Eagles. And I obviously felt like I needed to prove something. For those first couple days, I mean, let me tell you … I was one of the best DBs out on that practice field.

And I was excited, too, because the Eagles were about to play at Green Bay their next game. It was all systems go. But as game day got closer, my knee kept swelling up more and more.