As soon as I saw the report that he wasnt playing or traveling with the team for Monday's game my spidey sense started tingling. Dude stood there in the locker room and said he was fully healthy, everything was great, he was ready to go, etc. Then that happened. What are the odds of this happening coming off of the weird situation where Zadarius Smith was "so happy to be here and never even considered retiring" to playing a few games for the Eagles and then retiring.

As far as the trade goes, they gave up a 6th for a 7th which even under the circumstances at the time was oddly cheap. Howie has good relationships with the Baltimore front office so my guess is they were up front and honest with Howie about everything and he knew it was a big risk hence the super cheap price.

2 hours ago, Cheesteakitis said:

Strange but sounds like maybe he is having some mental health issues hopefully he gets that straightened out.

Agreed. But you'd think coming to a SB contender who happens to be yours and your families team would be a dream come true. I think the knee was worse than he they thought. I kinda remember an article where he decided to drain the knee vs getting surgery. But not 100% sure

49 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

As soon as I saw the report that he wasnt playing or traveling with the team for Monday's game my spidey sense started tingling. Dude stood there in the locker room and said he was fully healthy, everything was great, he was ready to go, etc. Then that happened. What are the odds of this happening coming off of the weird situation where Zadarius Smith was "so happy to be here and never even considered retiring" to playing a few games for the Eagles and then retiring.

As far as the trade goes, they gave up a 6th for a 7th which even under the circumstances at the time was oddly cheap. Howie has good relationships with the Baltimore front office so my guess is they were up front and honest with Howie about everything and he knew it was a big risk hence the super cheap price.

Sounds like entitled players that would rather not deal with playing for Vic as he makes players actually earn their PT.

4 hours ago, Lman said:

Good thing we didnt trade a 1st or 2nd for a player and get bent over. I wonder if the Ravens knew he was going to leave football before they traded him.

I doubt it. NFL ownership is a partnership. They are only rivals in the minds of the fans.

Mental health is a really big thing that we all have to be so careful with… But this just feel off and not right from the time the team announced he was not travelling to GB. Before that we all thought it was low risk, high reward but with a good chance of just not amounting to much. But then he didn’t travel and this of just feels off. Apparently he was doing alright in practice? But if he doesn’t feel like mentally he’s in the right place then yeah he needs to step away. It just sucks that there’s no process in place for us to get a comp pick or something as compensation.

5 hours ago, Portyansky said:

Agreed. But you'd think coming to a SB contender who happens to be yours and your families team would be a dream come true. I think the knee was worse than he they thought. I kinda remember an article where he decided to drain the knee vs getting surgery. But not 100% sure

For me it’s more the mental stuff… Like if he’s not physically ready then okay fine. But like the mental health side of it? It’s so tricky and we all have to be so careful with it but I guess I don’t get it? Like you say he’s joined his team and has a chance to go win a SB surely that’s a dream situation? Unless they mean mentally he can’t comprehend that his knee is healthy enough? Like he’s feeling an issue that isn’t really there and medically the tests say he’s good to go?

I think there are probably some serious mental health issues here and the important thing is for him to get right. I suspect he is done with football unfortunately.

From a football perspective, sounds like the Ravens knew what they were doing. At least it was only a 6th. Phillips looks like a great pick up however.

12 minutes ago, ManchesterEagle said:

I think there are probably some serious mental health issues here and the important thing is for him to get right. I suspect he is done with football unfortunately.

And if that’s correct then that’s really sad… But he should have decided this before the trade.

Just now, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

And if that’s correct then that’s really sad… But he should have decided this before the trade.

Last week he said he felt the best he ever had and was excited, he is clearly lost mentally or doesn't know what he wants.

29 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Last week he said he felt the best he ever had and was excited, he is clearly lost mentally or doesn't know what he wants.

I suspect that’s it. He has probably declined since his knee injury but is unable to process his new limitations and may be reacting badly to getting beaten in practice or attempting to make plays that he can no longer make (hence the coaches decision designation).

He didn't "retire" ........ yet.

I do wonder if we had let him travel to GB and maybe gotten him on the field if he would still have decided to walk away (not that we'll ever know or that I think we should have played him for that reason). Just such a bizarre situation.

First it was Za'darius Smith and now Alexander. Both players were initially "excited" to be joining the Eagles only to abruptly "retire". Could be a coincidence, but I can't help but wonder if it's one of these 2 things: the team culture is seen as too demanding by some and they just don't have it in them to fit in...or...they saw something or know something of some kind of toxicity going on.

Either way, it's just odd that this has happened twice now. But I guess with Alexander it could just be that he isn't right mentally (and physically...which is taking a toll mentally). He just might be coming to grips with his decline and isn't handling it well.

Good luck to him. Playing football is just one aspect of these guys lives. Hopefully he can get "right" mentally and physically.

29 minutes ago, EaglesAddict said:

Could be a coincidence, but I can't help but wonder if it's one of these 2 things: the team culture is seen as too demanding by some and they just don't have it in them to fit in

You know it really could be this! Hadn’t even thought about that but yeah maybe the culture here is too demanding for some? And for a player like Alexander who is trying to fight back from injury and perhaps deal with not being the player he was that was too much?

46 minutes ago, time2rock said:

I do wonder if we had let him travel to GB and maybe gotten him on the field if he would still have decided to walk away (not that we'll ever know or that I think we should have played him for that reason). Just such a bizarre situation.

I think they didn’t let him travel because they were aware of this.

40 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

You know it really could be this! Hadn’t even thought about that but yeah maybe the culture here is too demanding for some? And for a player like Alexander who is trying to fight back from injury and perhaps deal with not being the player he was that was too much?

Yeah, could be a combination of those things. I wasn't expecting much from Alexander, but it would have at least been nice to see if he could have offered anything. His family are Eagles fans and live in the area so that makes this doubly weird.

6 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I think they didn’t let him travel because they were aware of this.

Good point. Could be. Too bad he didn't bring this to everyone's attention when the deal was going down. For one it would have saved us a pick (even though it is a late rd pick it still has value). And secondly, we potentially could have made a deal before the trade deadline for a different CB that would not have bailed before playing a single down here.

26 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Good point. Could be. Too bad he didn't bring this to everyone's attention when the deal was going down. For one it would have saved us a pick (even though it is a late rd pick it still has value). And secondly, we potentially could have made a deal before the trade deadline for a different CB that would not have bailed before playing a single down here.

What makes it confusing is that Alexander said he was excited and the healthiest he's ever been and was ready when the trade happened. Maybe he had a setback from where he thought he was and said to himself he can't do it anymore. After all this dude has only more then 7 games once in 5 seasons. It has to be mentally draining always hurt like that.

2 hours ago, EaglesAddict said:

First it was Za'darius Smith and now Alexander. Both players were initially "excited" to be joining the Eagles only to abruptly "retire". Could be a coincidence, but I can't help but wonder if it's one of these 2 things: the team culture is seen as too demanding by some and they just don't have it in them to fit in...or...they saw something or know something of some kind of toxicity going on.

You have to wonder about Fangio, too. Nobody is a bigger fan than I, but let's be honest, he does have a reputation...and both of these guys are defenders...

PSSY

PSSY.
THAT explains it.
🤣

9 minutes ago, JamesK said:

You have to wonder about Fangio, too. Nobody is a bigger fan than I, but let's be honest, he does have a reputation...and both of these guys are defenders...

Good point. Hence all the smoke from Miami defenders. I guess some players just ain't tough enough to handle Fangio...weakasses!

He had knee surgery in January. Often players do not look the same for a year following knee surgery. Physically I do not think he is back to 100%, and mentally he is having a hard time dealing with it.