Alexander sports new look, new attitude
TAMPA — On the morning that Bucs veterans report for the start of training camp, linebacker Kwon Alexander spoke with reporters and showed off a new red look to his hair, as well as an eagerness to get on the field and prove himself to doubters.
“First of all, we just all have to come together,” Alexander said Thursday. “We’re not worrying about what everybody else is thinking right now. We come together, we play together as a team and as a family, we can do a lot of big things. That’s all we’re worrying about right now.”
Alexander, who turns 23 next week, led the NFL in solo tackles in his second season with the Bucs, and he said the continuity of having Mike Smith back for a second season as defensive coordinator will help — last year’s defense finished strong, though he conceded it took some time to get comfortable with the scheme.
“We’re going to hit the ground running — we’ve played in this system already,” he said. “It took us a little minute last year to get it all together, then we made our run. Now we’re comfortable with the system. Everybody just has to get back into the playbook and get it all down pat with no mistakes. We need no mistakes and no big plays, and then we’re going to do a great job.”
Today brings the first practice, and the Bucs’ first preseason game is only two weeks off, at the Bengals on Aug. 11.
“I’m ready to go today. If I could go out there today, I would,” he said. “I was so happy to see them in there, all excited and ready to go. There’s a lot of energy in the locker room.”
Alexander has found motivation in the slightest of offseason slights -- being left off NFL rankings or underranked as a defense or linebacking corps -- but said the best solution for that is on the scoreboard this fall.
“We start winning, we all will get our respect,” he said. “That’s the plan: Start winning. I’m not rushing it. It’s going to come.”
Let the HBO “Hard Knocks” over-the-top oneupmanship begin at Bucs training camp.
When the Bucs signed Pro Bowl receiver DeSean Jackson this spring, quarterback Jameis Winston explained that his new target was “a Bentley with a Ferrari engine” — a nod to Jackson’s smaller frame but elite speed.
And when Jackson pulled up to One Buc Place for the start of training camp — with teammate and Harry Potter superfan Mike Evans riding shotgun and sporting a black “straight Outta Hogwarts” T-shirt — Jackson did so in a Ferrari. A white Ferrari 488 GTB, best we can tell.
Jackson got $20-million guaranteed on his new Bucs contract, so he can afford to drive what he wants — in this case, a new 488 should start around $249,000.
Car & Driver ranks it as its No. 1 exotic sports car: “With its twin-turbo 3.9-liter V-8 located behind you, you’ll enjoy its sonorous wail, and ferocious acceleration, all the way to 8000 rpm, where it makes 661 hp,” its review says, mentioning that it goes from 0 to 60 in 3.0 seconds.
The media wasn’t allowed to be at One Buc Place for players’ arrivals for training camp, but the Bucs posted video clips, including Jackson’s Ferrari and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy — who vacationed in Japan this summer — walking in wearing a red-and-gold robe, headband and large paper fan.