Kwon: Four Games Healthy
January 25th, 2018
Kwon addresses his up and down season
Kwon Alexander is the last guy to make excuses for an injury.
When Kwon is on the field, he’s there to ball and he expects to perform.
But the 2017 season is over now and Joe had 1-on-1 time with Kwon yesterday at the Pro Bowl, a chance to dive deeper into the reality of Kwon’s performance.
Fans will remember his opening-day interception of Mike Glennon that sparked the Bucs early in that commanding victory. Kwon blew a hamstring soon after that pick and missed the next four games.
His comeback was a bit rocky before smoothing out late.
Kwon said he can’t pinpoint exactly what percentage of his struggles were injury and what was the result of rust from sitting out five weeks. Regardless, Kwon said he’s taking how good he felt and played in the final four games to springboard him into 2018.
“For me, bro, I feel like I have to be on my game, it doesn’t matter when. Because people look up to me and for me to play at my best. If I play my best, everybody else feed around me,” Kwon said.
“I don’t know if it was all the injury, or it was just me not playing so long and taking time to get back to my groove. But once I got back to my groove, you see the last four games, I was back to myself. Got back to making the plays that I usually make and not missing much. I’m just going to translate that over to this year now, and then make something happen with that.”
For the record, Kwon had 34 solo tackles and 10 assists, plus an interception of Cam Newton in those final four games. At that pace for a full season, Kwon would have led the NFL in combined tackles and in solo tackles, which he did last year.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:08 am
He didn’t seem to have the impact this year that he had last year… before the PED suspension. Maybe it was an injury. Hope so.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:16 am
Love Kwon, but he seemed very susceptable to biting on fakes and getting out of his gaps at times. I just have a sense that good OC’s use his speed against him at times. I wish we had a more innovative leader coaching our D. Not sure how much it is coaching or players but there always seem to be soft spots in our defense.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:18 am
Kwon Alexander is the last guy to make excuses for an injury.
^^^So Joe will do it for him LMAO
January 25th, 2018 at 10:19 am
This team is always injured. Every year. THAT needs to be looked into.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:23 am
soft teams with no leadership or accountability always have more injuries than tough prepared football teams.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:29 am
Uh-oh, this does jive with the it was Coach Smitty’s fault, scapegoat narrative!!!!!! If you keep reporting the truth the sheep might even start to question!!!!!! ( most likely not ) !!!!!!!!!!!
Fix the “real” problem, the “trenches”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!
January 25th, 2018 at 10:31 am
I just don’t get it Joe. Bucs’ LBs were playing BETTER with Beckwith in the middle IMO while Kwon was on the sidelines injured. Why in heaven’s name did Koetter let him back in if he was still injured? This is the exact same BS we’re being fed about Jameis (He was injured but he played his heart out). Bullspit! If you’re injured with a hammy you’re not gonna help the team by hurrying back. If you’re injured with a bum shoulder as a QB you’re not gonna help the team by hurrying back. I’ve heard the ‘excuses’ that ‘the Bucs’ medical doctors cleared him so it’s OK’ but that’s baloney if the injured player’s performance sucks.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:43 am
Brett, he was susspended for PEDs at the end of the 15-16 season, his rookie year. During the 16-17 season he led the NFL in solo tackles, and was not suspended for PEDs at any point. So I’m not sure what you’re talking about performance-wise with him and drugs.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:51 am
Defense Rules
I completely agree…..all BS and excuses….
and i’ll take it a step further….they rushed kwon and Winston back to save their jobs…..they succeed but now they’re officially on the “hot seat”….GO BUCS!!!!
January 25th, 2018 at 11:04 am
LVD should be in pro bowl, not Kwon
January 25th, 2018 at 11:46 am
Kwons was hampered by a hammy this year, boo hoo let’s go cut him because he tried to lift up his faltering teams spirits by being a toughguy (something nfl fans and owners seem to forget that footballs USED TO BE all about). Give this dude a break, guy made a pro bowl (we’ll deserved after getting snubbed last year) on one leg and a short season.. Our “COACHING” on defense was horrendous this year, almost as bad as Lovies his last season in TB. Look I like mike smith but this year can be looked past if he can pickup where he left off at the end of 2016 season, you know, when the Bucs D closed out the season like beasts possessed.. everybody relax, this isn’t the firat( or last) time the Bucs will falter to a losing season but our time is near.. Jameis injury was a bigger loss than Kwon but point is the QB of our Offense AND Defense was hampered this year and our teams results showed because of it.. you take our Matt Ryan/ Deion Jones from Atlanta or Cam Newton/Luke Kuechly from CAR and neither of those teams is in the playoffs, matter of fact they probably end the year with a top ten draft pick… kinda like us.. so stop the whining and keep faith, otherwise go jump on the TB12 and Bill Billicheat bandwagon if you can’t Handle a lost season, any true Bucs fan knows how to handle a down season like this year and matter of fact I’m f$@38iN’ stoked that our future is potentially so bright with JW3 and KAlexander58 running this ship!
January 25th, 2018 at 11:55 am
jerseybuc:
Love Kwon, but he seemed very susceptable to biting on fakes and getting out of his gaps at times. I just have a sense that good OC’s use his speed against him at times. I wish we had a more innovative leader coaching our D. Not sure how much it is coaching or players but there always seem to be soft spots in our defense.
———————–
i could be wrong but i think it would be harder to expose him in the middle of a 3-4 defense, just another reason to consider a shift in our base defensive scheme
January 25th, 2018 at 12:04 pm
@MARKbucsFAN … “stop the whining and keep faith, otherwise go jump on the TB12 and Bill Billicheat bandwagon if you can’t Handle a lost season.” Interesting perspective Mark. Lots of us obviously fair-weather Bucs’ fans (to you) have hung on for years & years (myself since 1982). We’ve seen some great times, but a lot more not-so-great times. Plenty of ‘lost seasons’ during my 35-plus years as a Bucs’ fan, but I’m still here, as are many, many other true Bucs’ fans. Personally don’t think it’s ‘whining’ to be critical of a team’s performance or various decisions (such as playing Kwon in the middle instead of Beckwith), but to each their own. Different perspectives is kinda what makes JBF fun. Welcome aboard, and don’t jump ship … hang tough and enjoy the ride.
January 25th, 2018 at 12:06 pm
@Pick6 … “i could be wrong but i think it would be harder to expose him in the middle of a 3-4 defense, just another reason to consider a shift in our base defensive scheme.” Very much agree Pick6. Hopefully Smitty will use the 3-4 much more this year, even if we don’t transition to it 100%.
January 25th, 2018 at 12:06 pm
The LB play was better the last 4 games than any other point imo.
In general this was one of the more injured defensive years for us when it comes to key players. It’s why I don’t get the Smitty hate and Koetter Love.
For one – it sucks when your best pass rusher goes out for the season. Dude had a sack/fumble his first game to go with being in on 9 tackles…
Noah Spence was the #1 loss for this defense by far easy. Even if all he did was come in on 3rd and long all year to get pressure; that’d have added an insane value / dimention to our defense that was lacking.
Then you have Lavonte / Kwon both missing a month+; and their injuries seemed to linger a bit. I’m sure they were fine to play but the rust factor is real.
Grimes also missed about a month of games; and was dinged up throughout.
VHIII was out basically 1/2 the year and dealing with minor injuries going back to the Vikings game. In that game the entire defense was hurt pretty much.
It’s not like all these players have some huge injury history. They aren’t 30+ year old Robert Ayers or a Jaquis Smith – guys you’d expect to miss games here or there.
And that’s not even mentioning having no bye week to try and regroup with the bodies we had around at mid-season. There was little time to really ever adjust with an ever-revolving door of starters. The coaching still wasn’t good – but Smitty really did have more to deal with / overcome than most defensive coordinators did last year.
January 25th, 2018 at 12:56 pm
813bucboi Says:
January 25th, 2018 at 10:51 am
Defense Rules
I completely agree…..all BS and excuses….
and i’ll take it a step further….they rushed kwon and Winston back to save their jobs…..they succeed but now they’re officially on the “hot seat”….GO BUCS!!!!
Amen brother, couldn’t agree more!
January 25th, 2018 at 1:00 pm
Pewter,
Fitzpatrick was winning , so a dinged up JW is counter to your argument. Beckwith was better than kwon so that’s 0-2.
January 25th, 2018 at 1:33 pm
Good points LC – no doubt extended absence by 3 of our D’s 4 best players contributed to the defense’s bad performance in 2017 – especially early in the year.
I think the “disconnect” was a very real issue for the Defense as a whole – and injuries definitely played a big part in that. At one point, 6 of the entire back 7 consisted of players who were either rookies or back-ups and thus not used to playing with each other. Chris Conte being the only veteran starter who was familiar with the defense available. “Communication problems” could only be expected in those circumstances no matter how well some of those rookies and back-ups played.
January 25th, 2018 at 1:44 pm
Hard to tell the system sucks!
January 25th, 2018 at 5:03 pm
After Kwon was out for those four games I definitely still saw him as not %100. If Kwon could start about 13-16 games a year, he would have the most solo tackles every year. HEARD CRAZY PPL ON THIS SITE SAYING TO TRADE HIM FOR A LOT AND REPLACE HIM WITH BECKWITH AT MLB!!! I mean, I relly like Beckwith, but…Uhhh…No. This LB corp is the only thing we kinda have in this defense and Kwon and LVD are what make that.
January 25th, 2018 at 5:06 pm
@ doctor berto
Kwon is in the probowl because a mlb decided not to go. Lvd does not play mlb and that is why he was not chosen. I’m suprised that would have to be explained but then again……
January 25th, 2018 at 5:37 pm
I really like the run and hit LB profile of Kwon and LVD, Beckwith not as fast, but a thumper in the run game –
I’m always griping about the lines and the secondary but I LOVE our LB group
Now if we can get some people up front to pressure the QB and protect these deer-like speed backers, our D could return to respectability very quickly…
January 25th, 2018 at 10:44 pm
Hey Joe’s,
Next year can you guys actually go cover a game we care about, the pro bowl is a waste of time. You guys are my favorite source for Bucs information, but sadly I have to look elsewhere for senior bowl breakdowns. We are litterally drafting guys from this game, we want our favorite and knowledgeable joebucsfan guys there, not hanging around Gerald making jokes at the pro bowl. Come on guys!