Eagles and Jaire Alexander: Perfect fit or injury gamble?

It seems like almost every offseason, there’s a player that gets released, and you think, ‘Hey, we should go after him.’ Then you Google him, and it turns out he was drafted seven years ago and he’s got an injury bug that’s worse than you remembered. That’s Jaire Alexander this season. 

Is he someone the Philadelphia Eagles should look into? Yeah, of course. Will his leaving make the Eagles' 2025 season easier? Eh, kind of, but not really.

How much do you pay a player who can’t stay healthy?

On Monday morning, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Packers were going to release their franchise cornerback Jaire Alexander, just two years into his four-year contract.

"First of all, he's been a great player for us," Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy told WBAY. “Obviously, an elite talent and, you know, unfortunately, just injured a lot. Unfortunately, that's a big part of our game…The reality is that for the last four years, for Jaire, it's about half of the games he's been able to play, so we've been used to it.”

The bottom line is that Jaire Alexander is not a Green Bay Packer anymore, and he’ll probably be a good addition to any team that signs him. The problem is twofold: Mark Murphy was right, and Jaire Alexander has missed a boatload of games because of injuries. 

He started off his career strong. The Packers picked him 18th overall in the 2018 draft, and in his first three seasons, he played in 44 of a possible 48 games. In 2020, he was a second-team All-Pro cornerback.

After that, the wheels fell off. From 2021 to 2024, he only played in 34 out of a potential 68 games. That’s crazy. I knew he was out for most of the past two seasons, but I totally forgot he only played in four games in 2021. The 2022 season really juiced the ‘played games’ number up; he played in 16 games that season. The guy just cannot stay healthy.

It’s not just one type of injury either. It’s been his shoulder, his quad, his back, his knee, and his groin… that’s pretty much all of the important parts.

That being said, the Eagles should definitely look into him because he’d be an upgrade over whoever the Eagles decide to start opposite Quinyon Mitchell… but only if the money is right. 

This offseason, the Eagles have shown that they aren’t in the business of making big free agent signings for overpriced players, and Alexander is going to be overpriced. 

When Howie Roseman calls Alexander’s agent (which he probably already has), the conversation should go:

'How much are you looking for?'

'$X million.'

'Cool. Call me when it's half that.'

If the Eagles were to pay him, it would more than likely be after every other team that’s interested has said no to his original price. There are a lot of dumb teams that are probably willing to throw some real money at a 28-year-old former All-Pro cornerback, regardless of his injury history. 

As for the price the Eagles would be willing to pay, they have to know where they are at with Cooper, DeJean, Kelee Ringo, Adoree’ Jackson, and/or Mac McWilliams (the four guys who could line up at the CB2 spot). 

With that many bullets in the metaphorical chamber, you have to imagine that something is going to have to go really wrong, or someone is going to have to massively underperform in the offseason for the Eagles to justify paying for Alexander. It simply wouldn’t be worth it… But at the right discounted price, absolutely go for it. 

As far as what this means for the Eagles' season: not much really. Alexander was their best cornerback, but he couldn’t keep up with the Eagles' receivers — specifically A.J. Brown — who he had to try to cover in Week 1 last season.

Like Murphy said correctly, they’re used to him not being there. They have Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine, who are not elite, not exceptional, nor great; they’re just perfectly fine.

The issue isn’t really about how this affects the Eagles; it’s about how it affects the other teams the Packers are playing, and that’s because the NFC East is playing the NFC North this year.

The Cowboys and the Commanders both upgraded their wide receiver rooms this season, albeit tiny little bits. Even so, now both of those teams have more than just one above-average receiver. Conventional wisdom says they’ll be able to attack weaker defenses better. 

Maybe the Green Bay defensive back room is going to be a little bit better this year, but they still (probably) won’t be as good as they were with a healthy Alexander… Again, they’re used to not having him, so who really knows how much it will impact what they have going on?

One thing is for sure: the Football Gods will intervene. The Packers are cutting a guy because he’s always hurt, and that means he’ll hilariously be healthy for the entire 2025 season.