Especially when it comes to the NFL offseason, it can be far too easy to view players as simply names and numbers on a roster. The business side of the NFL involves plenty of brutal realities, most of which fans don't get a ton of insight into.
Former Green Bay Packers star cornerback Jaire Alexander recently put out a piece for The Players' Tribune and shed important light on the human element of player movement in the NFL, as well as heartbreaking details previously unknown.
Alexander was a first-round pick by the Packers out of Louisville back in 2018. For a time, he was considered arguably the best cornerback in the NFL, or at least in the discussion. His playing days came to an abrupt and seemingly premature halt in 2025 after he was cut by the Packers, signed with the Baltimore Ravens, and eventually traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, who he would never take the field for.
Although there were plenty of assumptions made about why things didn't work out with the Ravens or Eagles, the story from Alexander's side reveals the heartbreaking details of exactly why he simply couldn't play anymore once his time with Green Bay was finished.
Jaire Alexander reveals how his exit from the Green Bay Packers effectively ended his playing career
Here is an excerpt from what Alexander had to say in his piece:
"After a few weeks, I kinda got the hint. Like, Hmmmm maybe the Packers don’t really want me around anymore.
Not long after that, they got in touch about a potential pay cut. And, you know what … I understood. I was making a lot of money. I just got hurt. I had no problem with taking less money and having to prove my value again. But as we went back and forth, it just seemed like we could never get fully aligned. So now, all of a sudden, I’m needing to think about maybe playing for another team — something I’d never really considered in the past. I’d always thought of myself as a Packer for life, had always wanted to end my career in Green Bay.
And yeah, I understand that the NFL is a business. I get that. But at the same time, just being honest here … it wasn’t easy for me coming to grips with that possibility. With the idea of potentially not being a Packer anymore."
The business side of the NFL can be brutal, and this is about as heartbreaking as it gets, especially knowing what we know now.
Alexander's final years with the Packers were rough, and for a number of reasons. On top of dealing with injuries, the team suspended him for a game back in the 2023 season, which was really the year that it felt things started to go sideways.
Prior to the 2023 season, Alexander had made multiple All-Pro teams and a couple of Pro Bowls, completely shutting down his side of the field from 2020 to 2022.
As injuries started to pile up and Alexander's availability became more and more limited, the Packers had to start thinking about making difficult decisions, even after paying him a big-money contract in 2022 that made him one of the highest-paid players at his position in the NFL at the time.
It's clear from Alexander's statements here that the business side of the NFL affects every player differently. It isn't always as easy as just changing cities, changing uniforms, and staying the exact same player you've always been. That was a hurdle that became impossible for Alexander to overcome, and as a result, one of the premier cornerbacks in the league as of the 2022 season is now out of the league at the age of 29.
As of now, the door isn't closed on a return to the NFL for Alexander, either. He stated in his piece that he would "never say never" regarding coming back to the league. The situation would obviously have to be the right one, and perhaps now that he's had some time to process everything mentally and emotionally, the stars could align for him to be back on an NFL field in the near future.
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