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Eagles player review: Jaire Alexander edition

On Saturday night, the Philadelphia Eagles announced that they made a trade for former Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens CB Jaire Alexander. Here we'll review his 2025 season.

As noted in our initial news story, Alexander was released this past offseason by the Packers in June. He signed with the Ravens, but has only seen playing time in two games despite having only appeared on the injury report once, in Week 1, when he had no game status designation (like "questionable," etc.).

In those two games — against the Bills Week 1 and the Texans Week 5 — Pro Football Focus had Alexander down for 5 targets, all of which were complete, for 116 yards, or 23.2 yards per target. He was also flagged for a 27-yard defensive pass interference penalty.

I watched all of his snaps in those two games. Here's what I found in chronological order...

Ravens at Bills

• The Ravens are in a "prevent" defense near the end of the first half. Josh Allen keeps this play alive for a while, eventually finding Khalil Shakir in the middle of the field in front of Alexander, who is arguably playing too deep, given where the Bills' receivers were on the field. In fairness to Alexander here, this is a great throw from Allen. Alexander is No. 23, by the way, bottom of the screen.

The Bills would spike it, get another completion, and steal three points before the end of the half.

• This is a 4th and 5 play. If this throw to Josh Palmer (5) is on time and accurate, it's a touchdown. It's neither, and Alexander is instead flagged for defensive pass interference as Palmer is trying to come back for the ball. Again, Alexander is lined up pre-snap at the bottom of the screen.

The Bills would score a touchdown two plays later.

• This one is ugly. Alexander is at the top of the screen, and it's a little dump-down to the bottom of the screen to James Cook. Cook breaks a tackle and gets into the open field. As Cook runs into the red zone, Alexander isn't aggressively trying to make a tackle. He is merely trying to keep Cook from getting outside of him, and forcing Cook toward his defensive teammates, who can then make the tackle. However, Alexander failed to even keep contain, and Cook runs right around him.

Yuck.

• Hey, here's a good rep 🎉. Two-point conversion. Allen wants Keon Coleman on the slant, but Alexander has it covered, Allen comes off of it and eventually throws an INT on the other side of the field.

• This is a "turkey hole" shot by Allen to Coleman. Alexander did not get dinged by PFF on this play for for the target/completion, but it's arguably in his zone.

This could be wrong, but in my opinion he's hoping Allen throws underneath with visions of a pick-six there and instead gets burnt for a chunk play.

• The Bills have one last possession. They're down 2 and trying to drive for a winning field goal. Alexander simply loses Palmer here.

That was one of the biggest plays in the game. Bills in field goal position.

• Next play, the Ravens are sending a heavy blitz to knock the Bills back out of field goal position, Alexander is on an island against Coleman, and, well, ballgame...

That's a tough ask, but, I mean, that's not even a competitive rep.

Alexander was pretty clearly demoted after this game, as he was a healthy scratch each of the next three games.

Ravens at Texans

In Week 5, with Chidobe Awuzie and Marlon Humphrey both inactive, Humphrey suited up again. The vast majority of Alexander's snaps came in garbage time, and he was out-snapped by rookie CBs T.J. Tampa and Keyon Martin, an undrafted free agent.

He was targeted twice in this game, per PFF. I found the two targets:

• Easy pitch and catch:

• And I'm not sure I'd ding Alexander here, but we'll show it for the sake of including all the targets he is being held responsible for:

Outlook

The Eagles gave up very little to acquire Alexander. They traded a sixth-round pick in 2026 and received a seventh-round pick along with Alexander in return. The Ravens are only two games back in the AFC North, chasing a Steelers team that is not very good. With Lamar Jackson back at quarterback, they no doubt feel like they can still win their division. They are not sellers.

Ravens beat writer Jeff Zrebiec, of The Athletic, tried to make sense of the trade from the Ravens' perspective.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh raved about how Alexander handled the inactivity, but the veteran wanted to play and there was no immediate path to snaps with the Ravens.

The Ravens have been using three safeties on just about every defensive play, creating few opportunities for reserve cornerbacks. As it was, Alexander was behind Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins and Chidobe Awuzie on the cornerback depth chart. The Ravens have two other corners, T.J. Tampa and Keyon Martin, who are core special teamers. Alexander didn’t play special teams, meaning there was really no place for him on the game-day roster as a reserve cornerback. In making the deal, the Ravens created about $2 million in salary cap space and added another draft pick. General manager Eric DeCosta has the cap flexibility and draft capital to make additions before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline. Trading Alexander gives him some roster flexibility as well.

I respectfully disagree with that framing. In the Ravens' Week 5 loss to the Texans, Tampa and Martin — again, both of whom are rookies — started with Awuzie and Humphrey both out with injuries. Add in that Wiggins is obviously ahead of Alexander as well, and by the time Alexander was traded, he was no better than the Ravens' CB6 in one of the worst defenses in the NFL. He wasn't just inactive because he doesn't play special teams. He was behind those two rookie corners in the regular defense as well.

The hope from the Eagles' perspective is that defensive backs coach Christian Parker can get Alexander to play better, as Parker was on the Packers' coaching staff for two years when Alexander still played in Green Bay. But it's probably more likely that Alexander just isn't a good player anymore.