Kwon Alexander, a LB out of LSU, was taken in the 4th round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played the Will for the Tigers in college. Coming out, he was considered a good athletic specimen with great speed and the ability to aggressively attack the play. However, he’s also considered light for a linebacker and therefore lacked some functional strength. There were also a number of times where his aggressiveness caused him to be out of position and give up a big play, as well as some technique refinements he needed to make. Since the Bucs have the best WLB in the game in Lavonte David, they experimented with moving Alexander around and became really impressed with how he performed in the Mike position. Now he’s getting first team snaps in the preseason and it looks like he’s going to be the starter when the season rolls around. As a bit of a lesser touted rookie who is going to start, he should be interesting to study. This article will break down all of his defensive snaps from the Bucs’ preseason game against the Bengals.

Before I begin, I’m going put forth a couple of caveats about this analysis. First of all, the NFL doesn’t release the All-22 tape of preseason games. This is more difficult to deal with when studying DBs or WRs, but it’s still frustrating when trying to look at LBs. Sometimes the LB will drop into a zone that’s off the broadcast screen, and it’s also frustrating to try to watch LBs in run defense from this angle because the End Zone angle offered in with the All 22 footage gives you a much better vantage point to see how the LB fill sin his gaps and tracks the ball carrier.

Second and more importantly, this is just a preseason game. It doesn’t count. Playing poorly in the preseason isn’t a death sentence for a player by any means. Playing well doesn’t mean that player is a superstar. Preseason isn’t super useful for evaluating players, except to identify areas they need to work on, and areas where they win. While insight can certainly be gained from watching a player’s preseason performance, it by no means tells the whole story on that player.

With that out of the way, let’s look at what Alexander did on Monday night. First I’m going to go over his snaps in pass coverage, then I’ll cover run defense and finally two pass rush snaps.

Pass Coverage

1-10-CIN 24 (Q1, 10:47) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass short right to 18-A.Green pushed ob at CIN 38 for 14 yards (21-A.Verner).

1-10-CIN 22 (Q1, 5:42) 14-A.Dalton pass incomplete deep left to 12-M.Sanu.

On this play you can clearly see Alexander and Lavonte David react to the play action, but they then end up off the screen so I don’t have anything to evaluate on this play.

2-10-CIN 22 (Q1, 5:36) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass incomplete short right to 25-G.Bernard.

The Bucs are playing man coverage on this play, and Alexander is manned up on Jeremy Hill. Hill just runs a simple checkdown route, but I like that Alexander comes up to him and gets his hands on him to prevent the checkdown from being an option if Dalton hadn’t throw the ball at Sanu.

2-10-CIN 39 (Q1, 3:04) 14-A.Dalton sacked at CIN 32 for -7 yards (57-L.English). Penalty on CIN-61-R.Bodine, Illegal Use of Hands, declined.

In this play, it looks like the Bucs are in a Cover 3. Alexander is responsible for the zone over the middle of the field. The TE runs a curl right into his zone. I like that Alexander goes to stick his arm out and potentially disrupt the TE while still watching the QB. In a zone defense, you should keep your eyes on the QB but also be aware of what’s going on in your zone. Alexander shows here that he has that awareness.

3-17-CIN 32 (Q1, 2:38) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton sacked at CIN 24 for -8 yards (sack split by 93-G.McCoy and 94-G.Johnson).

The Bucs showed off a really potent pass rush in this game. The first team defense was constantly in the backfield harassing Dalton. On this play, Alexander is in a zone over the middle of the field. There’s not a whole lot for him to do because no one enters his zone and the pressure quickly gets to Dalton.

1-10-CIN 1 (Q2, 11:57) 14-A.Dalton pass short right to 18-A.Green pushed ob at CIN 11 for 10 yards (21-A.Verner).

On this play we can’t even see anything at all from Alexander.

1-10-CIN 11 (Q2, 11:29) 14-A.Dalton pass short right intended for 18-A.Green INTERCEPTED by 21-A.Verner at CIN 24. 21-A.Verner for 24 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This play is basically a run defense play for Alexander because the Bucs are selling out against the run to try to get a safety. Dalton doesn’t need to do much on the PA fake to get all of the Bucs’ LBs to charge. If this had actually been a run play the Bengals might have blocked it differently, but if they had done the same thing with the blocking scheme that they did here it would have been a safety. Alexander hits Bernard in the end zone. He didn’t do anything against the possibility of a pass here (besides make a hit on an eligible receiver I guess) but he also wasn’t supposed to because of the situation.

2-9-CIN 27 (Q2, 10:22) 14-A.Dalton pass short middle to 32-J.Hill to CIN 29 for 2 yards (58-K.Alexander).

On this play, I’m pretty sure that Alexander is supposed to be in man coverage on Gio Bernard. Dalton releases the ball quickly enough that it’s not really possible for me to tell. Once the ball is thrown, however, Alexander does an admirable job of getting after the receiver. The interception is totally AJ Green’s fault, and Alexander helps block him. I also like the hustle Alexander shows on the return, as he doesn’t block anyone but he’s there to lead Verner down the field.

3-7-CIN 29 (Q2, 9:39) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass deep middle intended for 85-T.Eifert INTERCEPTED by 30-B.McDougald at 50. 30-B.McDougald pushed ob at CIN 12 for 38 yards (18-A.Green).

Alexander is calling the shots for the defense, and since Green and the TE switched spots on this play, he needs to make a change in the coverage. He sends LB Josh Keyes over to cover the slot. Since Dalton didn’t target either of those two players, I think it’s safe to say the change worked. I presume that Alexander dropped into a zone on this play, as he’s off the screen so I can’t know for sure. How quickly he reacts to the pass tells me that he is. Hill can be an elusive runner, but on this play I don’t think he does a good job with avoiding the tackle. He just kind of dances in place. Alexander does a good job of attacking the ballcarrier and bringing him down.

1-10-CIN 20 (Q2, 8:45) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass incomplete short right to 32-J.Hill.

Dalton makes a bad decision on this throw, as he throws into triple coverage. The throw sucks too, as it sails over the target’s head. The Bucs are running the vaunted Tampa 2 scheme here, with Alexander dropping into a zone that’s deeper than standard drop depth for a Cover 2. He gets good depth on the drop. The TE running the seam is a weakness of this defense, and that’s why Dalton would try to exploit it, but I really think that the Bucs did a good job of defending it. Dalton had to throw high to get the pass over the LBs, and he just threw too high. Even if the pass had been lower Eifert would have gotten blow up by McDougald, the safety. Alexander should also be commended for hustling down the field to help out.

1-10-CIN 16 (Q2, 7:00) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass short middle to 85-T.Eifert to CIN 23 for 7 yards (58-K.Alexander).

Nothing to see from Alexander on this play because he’s off the screen.

2-3-CIN 23 (Q2, 6:29) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass short left to 12-M.Sanu to CIN 29 for 6 yards (26-S.Moore).

This is a successful play by the Bengals but it is by no means a horrible failure by Alexander. Eifert’s route fakes a dig and then he abruptly stops and turns back the other direction. This is difficult for anyone to defender because they have to honor the initial route Eifert shows and then react once he changes direction. That’s not easy to do quickly, and corners struggle with this kind of route as well. The way to beat this route really requires a lot of film study in preparation and also experience to notice the subtle differences between what a dig would look like and this route. You really don’t game plan for opponents in the preseason, and Alexander also lacks experience, so I don’t think he should be expected to recognize this. If he had broken up this pass, that would have been a stellar play. It would also require a level of flexibility that few defensive players outside of corners have. At this stage in his career, I think recovering well and making the tackle to prevent a gain after the catch is good enough.

1-10-CIN 29(Q2, 5:53) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass short left to 25-G.Bernard to CIN 36 for 7 yards (77-T.McDaniel, 36-D.Swearinger).

On a quick screen pass, I like the hustle by Alexander. He put himself in position to prevent a large gain off of a broken tackle.

1-10-TB 24 (Q2, 3:49) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass incomplete deep middle to 85-T.Eifert (36-D.Swearinger).

On this play, Alexander doesn’t really have anyone to cover. The play the Bengals run is similar to a screen in that multiple linemen release to block downfield. Alexander gets blocked by one of these linemen, who also has help from a TE. There’s not much he can do.

3-5-TB 19 (Q2, 2:55) (Shotgun) 14-A.Dalton pass incomplete short left to 18-A.Green.

This is the second play where the Bucs are running a Tampa 2 and Alexander is asked to drop deep in the middle with the TE Eifert. This time he does not get enough depth. He needs to keep with Eifert more and get deeper, because the pass easily sails over his head. A big hit from Swearinger knocks the ball out of Eifert’s hands and saves a potential TD.

On this play Alexander shows blitz and then drops back into a zone. The pass is thrown so quickly that there’s not much to look at.