Former Alabama high school standout joins Detroit Lions

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.