Alexander hits the ground running

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This article was published 18/05/2023 (905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been a much different start to the CFL season for Brandon Alexander compared to last year.

Last spring, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers safety entered training camp with a limp, still rehabbing from a serious knee injury he suffered late in the 2021 Grey Cup. That year, Alexander wouldn’t be ready to play for months, with the team’s medical staff keeping him off the field until mid-September, limiting the hard-hitting defensive back to five regular-season games.

Fast-forward to today and Alexander is fully healthy and has hit the ground running. With the benefit of a full off-season, one dedicated to training rather than healing, the 29-year-old joined his teammates for training camp this year looking bigger and stronger than ever before.

In fact, Alexander put on an extra 15 pounds of muscle, bringing him up to nearly 200 pounds. That added weight appears to be in all the right places, too, and ask the player himself and he’ll tell you it hasn’t affected his speed or footwork.

“It’s funny, everybody that’s come by, when they first saw me, they’ve said, ‘Oh, you are looking kinda big,” a smiling Alexander told the Free Press. “I got a little more girth to me, and I’ve built up my legs a little bit more. I worked hard to put my body in the best possible way I can.”

Alexander didn’t have that luxury last winter. After tearing his ACL in the championship game — a 33-25 overtime win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — he underwent surgery to the knee a short time later and then spent the entire winter rehabbing in Winnipeg. He remained in Winnipeg again over this past off-season but was able to focus on a workout plan that benefited every part of his body.

It can’t be understated the importance for an athlete to have a full and productive off-season. When you’re battling an injury, because of the added time and attention it takes for it to heal, you inevitably fall behind in other parts of your preparation.

“You want to be building yourself up to training camp,” Alexander said. “If you’re rehabbing during the off-season, it’s so hard to get some things back, as far as your wind and conditioning. Trying to do that mid-season, that’s way different work. The off-season is supposed to be a time where you’re fine-tuning your body, not trying to fix it.”

Alexander said he spent a lot of time in the weight room with teammate Adam Bighill, who has also made Winnipeg his full-time home. He was able to do proper workouts that focused on building up his speed and agility, as well as incorporating stretching routines that were impossible to do last year with an injured knee.

As for the knee, Alexander said it’s fully healed, and as far as setbacks go, he hasn’t suffered any. He still wears a brace, but he’s not required to. He still doesn’t know if he’ll wear one during the season, but he’s leaning to probably not.

If his goal last season was to get back on the field, this year it’s to stay on it.

“The most important thing for me is just that I’m available for my guys,” Alexander said. “For me to be here every single day and play every single week, that’s all I really want for the season.”

Alexander isn’t just considered among the leaders on defence, he’s among the most-respected players in the locker room. His leadership is particularly valuable to the club’s defensive backs, though, with Alexander, as the safety, in charge of calling out the plays to the secondary.

Head coach Mike O’Shea has long shown a great respect for Alexander and what he brings to a team that prides itself on accountability and execution. O’Shea has liked what he’s seen so far from Alexander through the first week of camp, and he noted a full off-season has certainly helped.

“With those types of injuries, there’s a point where you feel really good and you know you can play. And then a little while later, you go, ‘Oh, that’s what feeling good is,” started the coach. “And then after a year, what you thought feeling good was and being able to play in six months, now a year goes by and it’s, ‘Oh, now this is what feeling good is, right? So, guys like him can play at a certain stage and then after a year it’s quite noticeable how much better they feel.”

Alexander is excited about the potential he sees in the Bombers secondary, especially for a group that despite suffering several injuries last season — 15 different defensive backs saw game action in 2022 — allowed the fewest passing yards and touchdowns against.

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The injuries, while certainly a drag last year, can now be viewed as a positive. Several players, including Jamal Parker and Evan Holm, saw valuable reps and made big-time plays as rookies — opportunities that wouldn’t have otherwise been available with a fully healthy roster.

Add in all-star Deatrick Nichols and veterans Winston Rose and Alden Darby Jr., along with Desmond Lawrence and Demerio Houston, and that’s pretty solid competition. That doesn’t even include the possibility of a newcomer making his presence felt, much like Nichols did in 2019 as a first-year player.

“You can’t ask for anything more,” Alexander said. “These guys are pushing me to be better every single day.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.