The Denver Broncos had two linebackers on their practice squad this season who were Alabama’s high school stars and led the NFL in solo tackles – Oxford’s Kwon Alexander and Pinson Valley’s Zach Cunningham.
Neither exists now. The Broncos signed Cunningham to their 53-man active roster on Monday, and Alexander signed with the Detroit Lions.
Alexander’s move to Detroit was not on the NFL’s transaction report Friday and the Lions did not announce it. But ESPN and NFL Network reported that Alexander changed teams and the collaboration occurred through the linebacker’s Instagram account.
Detroit added Alexander to its 53-man active roster after linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez suffered a knee injury in the Lions’ 23-20 win over the Chicago Bears on Thursday.
Detroit has already placed linebackers Alex Anzalone, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Derrick Barnes on injured reserve this season.
In his 10th NFL season, Alexander played three times with two starts after Denver signed him off their practice squad. Alexander played for the Broncos in Weeks 7, 8 and 9. Since no player can be promoted from the practice squad to active duty more than three times, Denver was no longer able to use Alexander in this manner after the 41-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on November 3rd.
The Broncos then elevated Cunningham to active status for their games in Weeks 10, 11 and 12, exhausting both linebackers’ options before signing Cunningham to the active roster and losing Alexander to the Lions.
Cunningham led the NFL with 106 tackles for the Houston Texans in 2020.
Alexander led the league with 108 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016. The next season he made the Pro Bowl.
In 2018, injuries began to affect Alexander’s career, and he has only played the entire schedule once – in 2016.
In 2020, the first of Alexander’s two seasons with the New Orleans Saints, Lions coach Dan Campbell was the Saints’ associate head coach and tight ends coach and Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was the New Orleans defensive backs coach.
Last season, Alexander had played in nine games with two starts for the Pittsburgh Steelers when he tore his Achilles tendon on November 12 and ended the season on injured reserve. Alexander became a free agent on March 13 and signed with Denver on September 25.
After recording 144 tackles and 17 sacks for Oxford as a junior, Alexander was a finalist for the high school Butkus Award, a member of the ESPN All-American team and a participant in the Under Armor All-American Game in 2011, although he missed most of missed season with a knee injury.
Alexander entered the NFL as a fourth-round pick out of LSU in the 2015 draft.
With the NFL’s best record of 11-1, the Lions play the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field in Detroit on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. CST.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
