This is what it’s like having your lifelong dream career hanging in the balance at 26 years old:
“I got cut Friday, and Sunday when [the Eagles] claimed me, I was like, ‘Man, starting to get toward the end of the day, what am I going to do?’ So I started to think what my next career was going to be because you don’t know when that next phone call was going to come. So I was in the middle of trying to figure out my next career, and then a friend of mine told me I was going to the Eagles and I didn’t even know. I guess it was on Twitter but I didn’t see it. I asked my agent, and he said, ‘I haven’t heard anything.’ OK. So now my mind is just going. Then another friend of mine texted me and said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re going to Philly.’ What the heck. So then I looked at Twitter again, and it was all over the place, so now I’m like, OK, and I told my agent, ‘I think I did get claimed.’ He called the Eagles and we [found out] it was official.”
This is what the weekend was like for D.J. Alexander, a fourth-year linebacker and Pro Bowl special teamer now with his third team in three years.
Alexander was originally a fifth-round pick of the Chiefs in 2015, where he played for Andy Reid, who had an offensive coordinator named Doug Pederson.
He made the Pro Bowl as a special teamer in 2016 and then was traded the following July to the Seahawks for Kevin Pierre-Louis, a linebacker now with the Jets.
He played in 12 games for Seattle last year but was released over the weekend and claimed by the Eagles.
He arrived in Philly at 2 a.m. Monday and was on the practice field later in the day and said after practice he expects to play Thursday night when the Eagles open the season at home against the Falcons.
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“The whole process is a little overwhelming. I don’t wish it upon nobody,” he said. “It’s a stressful time in your life.
“It was just a bunch of emotions. Happy, excited. Leaving the family back home is always hard but you've got to do what you've got to do to feed ‘em.”
Alexander, a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder out of Oregon State, said if he hadn’t gotten another NFL opportunity he would have started his own landscaping business back home in Southern California.
“I love doing landscaping,” he said. “I can’t do an office job. I can’t sit in an office job all day. I have to go out and get my hands on something and actually work.
“But I’m going to wait a little bit longer, and that’s a good thing.”
Alexander’s season ended two weeks early last year because of a concussion and he missed all of the summer workouts and much of training camp in Seattle with a shoulder injury.
He said he had a couple surgeries – “just clean-outs” – as well during the offseason but said he’s 100 percent now.
“The good thing is I was held out all preseason so super-fresh,” he said. “Fresh legs, antsy. Haven’t hit anybody else since last December. But I’m excited to get out there and finally hit someone.”
Alexander was on the opposing sideline the last time the Eagles lost a meaningful game. That was last December in Seattle.
“I loved watching these guys on film before we played them,” he said. “Looked like they had fun. Same atmosphere in Seattle.
“I think my career is just getting started. I had some bumps in the road with injuries, but being here is another opportunity to showcase my abilities.”