Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: ILB Kwon Alexander
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The veteran inside linebacker has been one of the Steelers’ most impressive defenders in spite of the fact that he was only signed some time into training camp. He participated in the first preseason game after about a week and a half of studying the playbook and played at times like he wrote it himself.
With two preseason games still left to play, it is fair to ask whether Kwon Alexander is going to win up as one of the Steelers’ starting inside linebackers. His obvious competition should be Elandon Roberts rather than Cole Holcomb, who seemed fixed as their every-down backer, but if he continues to play as he has, he’s going to make it a conversation.
After all, why not? He’s spent basically his entire career as a starter. His biggest obstacle has been his health, but he finally stayed on the field last year with the New York Jets. Teams seemingly remained skeptical of his durability this offseason, going unsigned into August and even then earning only a veteran salary benefit contract, but his play speaks for itself.
Alexander played 23 defensive snaps for the Steelers in the first preseason game. Though he was only credited with making two tackles (one for loss; a third tackle was negated by what was ruled an unnecessary roughness penalty), he seemed to be all over the field.
He provided an energy to the defense that I’m not sure we’ve seen come from the inside linebacker position in a while. It probably doesn’t hurt that he seems to have a big chip on his shoulder, ready to prove to everybody that he still has it.
Whether he is technically in the starting lineup or not, I’m convinced at this point that the defensive coaching staff will carve out a role for him, whether it is a situational package or some kind of rotation. They used Robert Spillane as a passing-downs linebacker in the past for some reason, so they’re open to working with getting different contributors on the field. I don’t think there’s any question that Robinson’s contributions will be valued.
