Tag: Mackensie Alexander

Father of Cincinnai Bengals’ DB Mackensie Alexander found alive

The father of Cincinnati Bengals’ DB Mackensie Alexander has been found alive after three days

The best possible resolution has happened in the case of the missing father of Cincinnati Bengals’ DB Mackensie Alexander. Jean Odney Alexandre, 65, was found to be alive Thursday when he walked up to a ranger station in Florida.

The strange story started Monday when Alexandre (different last name spelling of his son) when palmetto berry picking and did not return. He was reported as missing.

His son left Bengals camp to help with the search. When Alexander was in Florida he wound up being arrested on a battery charge with a high school teammate for assaulting the person his father went with on the trip.

Alexander, 26, was released on $2,000 bond Wednesday. He is expected to plead not guilty at a future arraignment date.

That man said he went searching for Alexandre for three hours with no luck.

Mackensie Alexander’s father found alive in Florida

The Cincinnati Bengals and Mackensie Alexander got some good news Thursday.

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The father of Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Mackensie Alexander has been found alive in Florida.

The Okeechobee Sheriff department announced the news Thursday morning, revealing Jean Odney Alexandre, 65, walked up to a ranger’s station in Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.

Alexandre was declared missing Monday after a trip to pick palmetto berries, with acquaintance before disappearing.

Alexander, signed by the Bengals in free agency this offseason, left the team to help look for his father and was arrested on one count of battery after allegedly confronting his father’s acquaintance. He was released on $2,000 bond.

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Report: Bengals’ DB Mackensie Alexander arrested in Florida

Bengals DB Mackensie Alexander and a former HS teammate were arrested in Florida as the case of the Benga;s’ DB missing dad turns stranger.

Talk about a strange twist to an already disturbing story. Cincinnati Bengals DB Mackensie Alexander was arrested Tuesday in Florida. The cornerback, who left camp when it was reported his father was missing Monday, was arrested for allegedly hitting the man who went on the berry-picking trip with his dad, Jean Odney Alexandre,

According to the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office, Alexander’s father went missing along with the unnamed man and others, had gone to Okeechobee County to pick palmetto berries. The unnamed man, described as Alexandre’s friend, told authorities that he could not find Alexandre “in the fields (where) they were originally searching for berries,” according to an incident report.

Per Cincinnati.com:

Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Mackensie Alexander and a friend went to the Florida home of a man who reportedly was with Alexander’s father before he went missing, tried “to convince” the man to leave with them, and then Alexander repeatedly struck him in the face, documents say.

Alexander, 26, and his former high school football teammate, 28-year-old Evins Clement, were arrested Tuesday by the Collier County Sherriff’s Office and face battery charges.

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More details:

At some point, Alexander and Clement began “to interrogate” the man about what happened to Alexander’s father, the report says.

They “(tried) to convince” the man to leave “with them in their vehicle,” the report says.

The man refused, “due to fear of retaliation.”

Eventually, according to the report, Clement grabbed the man and held him down, “rendering him defenseless.”

Alexander then “began to strike (the man) with a closed fist in the face several times,” the report says.

Alexander and Clement fled the scene when they heard the sound of approaching sirens, the report says. Law enforcement stopped their vehicle shortly after and arrested them.

Both were released from the Collier County Jail Wednesday on $2,000 bonds.

 

Report: Bengals DB Mackensie Alexander arrested on one count of battery

Cincinnati Bengals DB Mackensie Alexander was arrested Tuesday night.

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Cincinnati Bengals defensive back Mackensie Alexander was arrested on one count of battery in Collier County, Florida, on Tuesday night.

The report comes from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Alexander left the Bengals to return home after his father went missing Monday. According to Pelissero, the veteran defensive back allegedly confronted the man who left his father behind:

“Mackensie Alexander remains in custody and no arrest report has been released. My understanding is he allegedly confronted the man who left behind his father, Jean Odney Alexandre, on a berry-picking trip.”

Authorities in Florida have been searching for Jean Odney Alexandre, 65, who went missing after traveling more than 80 miles to pick palmetto berries and was left behind by a man he traveled with, per a press release.

The Bengals had a day off Tuesday when Alexander left the team.

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Vikings’ Mike Hughes is excited not to have injuries holding him back

Unlike last training camp, the Vikings cornerback won’t be trying to come back from an injury.

The Vikings will be relying on third-year cornerback Mike Hughes in a big way in 2020.

Gone is Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander. Suddenly, Hughes has become the favorite to be the top corner on the team. More importantly, he’s going into the season healthy, something that wasn’t the case heading into the 2019 season after he was recovering from a torn ACL.

“That’s what I want to reach this year – tap into some new levels I feel like I couldn’t get to because of injuries holding me back a little bit,” Hughes said via Vikings.com. “I’m coming into this year 100-percent confident in my body and how I feel and the work I’ve put into this offseason.”

Hughes also dealt with a neck injury late last season that caused him to miss both of Minnesota’s playoff games.
It feels like we haven’t been able to see the player that Minnesota drafted in the first round in 2018 yet. It never felt like he was fully up-to-speed due to injuries. In 2020, he’ll have no excuses, and he’ll also have every opportunity to prove himself.

Report: Trae Waynes could miss 2 months with pectoral injury

The Bengals gave the former Vikings cornerback a three-year, $42 million deal this offseason.

The Bengals might not get their big-time free agent by the start of the season.

Trae Waynes, who signed a three-year, $42 million deal with the Bengals this offseason after five seasons in Minnesota, has suffered a pectoral injury that could keep him out until October.

Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Waynes is getting a second opinion.

This is obviously a huge blow for both sides. We’ve seen these types of injuries linger throughout the course of a season. Hopefully that’s not the case for Waynes.

The Bengals also signed former Vikings cornerback Mackensie Alexander this offseason.

More proof Bengals got a massive free-agency steal with Mackensie Alexander

The Cincinnati Bengals got a big free-agent steal with Mackensie Alexander.

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We’ve been adamant since the Cincinnati Bengals quietly signed cornerback Mackensie Alexander that the team got one of the bigger steals of free agency.

Alexander wasn’t nearly as hyped as his former Minnesota Vikings teammate Trae Waynes, nor did he get even close to the money Waynes got from the Bengals.

And yet…it’s Alexander who could end up having a massive impact.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar recently amplified this sort of idea by naming Alexander as one of the best outright slot players in the NFL:

“Alexander did this well enough, playing slot on 468 of his 562 coverage snaps and allowing 40 receptions on 57 targets for 364 yards, 130 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 85.7. An above-average technician capable of mirroring and matching routes and working to deflect at the right time, Alexander could be a serious contributor to Cincinnati’s defense if defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo can do a better job of matching scheme to personnel.”

The Bengals haven’t been strangers to great slot players over the years. Darqueze Dennard was the latest and they might have something with Darius Phillips.

But Alexander — in town on merely a one-year deal worth $4 million — is a candidate to easily outplay the contract the Bengals gave him.

There’s a reason Mackenise is constantly hailed as a steal here and pops up on lists like the above. A terrible market for slot cornerbacks (Dennard and Logan Ryan still haven’t been signed) shouldn’t overshadow the quality of this signing and what it could mean improvement-wise for a revamped Bengals defense.

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The NFL’s 11 best slot defenders

More and more, your slot defender is your third starting cornerback or safety. Here are the 11 slot defenders who do it best in today’s NFL.

In the 2019 NFL season, per Sports Info Solutions, there were 19,933 total quarterback dropbacks. Against those dropbacks, NFL defenses put four defensive backs on the field just 18% of the time (3,579 snaps), while nickel defense (with five defensive backs) ruled the league by far with 59% of all snaps (11,780). And if you want to know how much the NFL isn’t a base defense league anymore, consider this: Defenses lined up in dime coverage (six defensive backs on the field) on 20.9% of total dropbacks (4,091), which means that teams played more dime defense than base defense. The Seahawks were the only team to play base defense more than 50% of the time (67%), and the Cardinals finished second at 37%.

All this is to say that unless you’re the Seahawks, you’d better have some top-level slot defenders if you want to put a credible pass defense out there in a league where offenses are implementing more kinds of receiver sets and route combinations than ever before.

And it’s not as if the skill sets required to be a slot defender are the same as those for an outside cornerback. You might be up against a 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end on first down who can body you right out of the paint, and on the next play, you may have to deal with a small, speedy option-route receiver whose job is to juke you right out of your shoes. And as Richard Sherman once told me in his Seattle days, the thing about playing outside cornerback is that the boundary is your friend. That’s not the case when you’re in the slot, where you’re defending in space pretty much all the time.

So, which slot defenders were the most effective and valuable to their teams in 2019, and thus should be set up to do the same in 2020? With help from Pro Football Focus’ metrics, and a whole lot of tape study, here’s one list. To avoid small sample-size results, each of these defenders played at least 50% of their snaps in the slot.

Mike Hilton | Chris Harris Jr. | Jourdan Lewis | Tramon Williams | Mackensie Alexander | Nickell Robey-Coleman | Marlon Humphrey | D.J. Hayden | Brian Poole | K’Waun Williams | Tyrann Mathieu

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Poll: Do you think the Vikings corners will be better, the same or worse?

Poll: Do you think the Vikings corners will be better, the same or worse?

Minnesota has had some turnover this offseason at cornerback, but whether that’s a good or bad thing still remains to be seen.

The Vikings saw Trae Waynes, Xavier Rhodes and Mackensie Alexander leave. However, the team still returns players such as Mike Hughes, Holton Hill and Kris Boyd.

Not only that, but the Vikings took Jeff Gladney, Cameron Dantzler and Harrison Hand in the draft. I think at least Gladney and Dantzler could possibly compete and win starting positions outside in 2020. But will they be better than the unit that featured Waynes, Rhodes and Alexander in 2019?

Many have suggested that the Vikings cornerback corps could actually be better than it was before, considering Rhodes’ lackluster play towards the end of his time with the Vikings.

There’s also a possibility that the corners aren’t experienced enough to succeed in huge roles right away.

Vikings fans, what do you think?

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Vikings team reporter thinks secondary will start slow, but improve throughout the season

Do you think the Vikings secondary will be the same, better or worse in 2020?

Despite being a team that went to the playoffs in 2019, the Vikings have created some question marks throughout the offseason.

Though it’s not really their fault, due to a limited salary cap, the Vikings let a lot of talent walk this offseason, especially in the secondary.

Cornerbacks Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, and safeties Jayron Kearse and Andrew Sendejo are all gone. Vikings team reporter Eric Smith was recently asked about the new-look secondary for 2020, and he gave an interesting answer.

Here’s what he said:

 “The Vikings secondary starts off slow in 2020 but improves throughout the season to finish about the same as 2019. But then the potential is there in the coming years for a top-tier unit, similar to what the Vikings had in 2017.”

Based on the way Rhodes and at times Waynes played in 2019, it helps to get younger in the secondary. The question becomes, though: Did the Vikings get too inexperienced in the secondary too quickly? We’ll have to see.