Desperation, thy name is Kwon Alexander.
That’s where the Detroit Lions defense sits entering Week 14, with a viable entire starting defense sitting on injured reserve and two more Lions freshly added to the I.R. after injuries in the Thanksgiving win over the Bears. Desperate for healthy bodies to bridge the gap until players like Alex Anzalone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin are able to return, the Lions plucked Alexander off the Denver Broncos’ practice squad.
It’s perhaps the most ironic news of what has already been a very odd–in a good way–season for the Lions.
Alexander carries name recognition with fans from his early days with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The fleet-footed off-ball LB from LSU sparked immediately as a fourth-round pick back in 2015. In 2016, Alexander led the NFL in solo tackles. The next year, Alexander earned a Pro Bowl with nearly 100 tackles and three INTs in 12 games.
The game-faced Alexander was a rising defensive star through those first three seasons, albeit one who missed four games apiece in two of those first three years with injuries. And then the injuries came. And came. And kept coming…
2018 – torn left ACL (10 games missed)
2019 – torn pectoral (8)
2019 playoffs – torn biceps (played through it)
2020 – high ankle sprain (4)
2020 – torn right Achilles (10, including the start of 2021)
2023 – torn left Achilles (8)
Alexander made it through a 17-game season just one, the 2022 campaign with the Jets. He made a positive impact in his one year in New York, quickly emerging as the Jets’ best LB in coverage and still a willing, if not always able, chase-down tackler in the run game.
He was playing reasonably well for the Steelers last season before the Achilles injury. Working at ILB, Alexander was relied upon in coverage and clean-up tackling in the run game and, aside from a very high missed tackle rate, fit well in Pittsburgh’s read-and-attack defense.
Now the man who has missed the equivalent of three full 17-game seasons due to a litany of injuries since 2017 is tasked with being the bandage for a Detroit LB corps that has lost Reeves-Mayvin, Anzalone and now Rodriguez in the last month.
If Alexander can show in Detroit what he did pre-injury in Pittsburgh in 2023, he can immediately help cover the loss of Anzalone and Reeves-Maybin–Detroit’s top two coverage linebackers. The glimpses of playing time Alexander got in Denver midseason are promising on that front. The veteran proved to be a nice foil against Lamar Jackson in Denver’s Week 9 loss to the Ravens.
Lions fans will have to live with the missed tackles (a rate over 20 percent since 2019) and the loss of the instant burst and twitchy reactions that made him a Pro Bowler all those years ago. Detroit simply needs functional depth and the best Kwon Alexander he can still be. He’ll get the chance to prove it quickly with the Lions.
