Why Kiko Alonso's injury will be devastating for the Bills

The 2014 NFL offseason has been a bad time to be a linebacker. Those who play the position would be wise to avoid all the usual symbols of bad luck voodoo over the next few weeks until training camp (walking under ladders, black cats, the Cleveland Browns, etc.).

Each offseason we’re reminded that football players can rip and break important body parts any time they’re on a football field, even during non-contact drills and private workouts. They’re finely-tuned athletic machines, and one awkward leg plant can lead to disaster.

This offseason, the wounded are also mostly middle linebackers, and key anchors for their respective defenses. First it was Sean Lee and Sean Weatherspoon, both gone for the season. Then Jon Beason followed with a foot fracture that could sideline him for a good chunk of the 2014 season, possibly missing up to four games.

Now there’s another devastating blow at the same position and for the entire season: Kiko Alonso’s year is done before it began.

Alonso suffered an injury while preparing for training camp, one that Bills general manager Doug Whaley first called “significant”. Though the team hasn’t confirmed the severity of the injury yet, reports that followed Tuesday night from ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport indicated Alonso tore his ACL, and will be lost for the season.

It’s a massive blow. Like Lee and Weatherspoon, Alonso is the anchor of his defense and highly efficient against both the pass and run.

In his rookie year he recorded 159 tackles. That not only led all rookies, it also placed Alonso third overall in the entire league. For deeper perspective showing how rare that tackle volume is (especially during a rookie season) glance back over the past five years prior to 2013. Over a half-decade period, only nine defenders cracked the 150-tackle plateau in a season.

What separates Alonso is his versatility in pass defense. He can stuff the run and attack aggressively as an imposing gap-filler, and also has the smooth hip movement and field sense to drop back in coverage. That gives the Bills defense as a whole flexibility, with its middle linebacker often able to keep up with the growing number of hulking yet athletically gifted tight ends.

Alonso had four interceptions in 2013, the most among middle linebackers, and he did it while playing every snap. In total he was on the field for 1,145 snaps as an every-down backer, while Brandon Spikes, Keith Rivers, and Nigel Bradham -- who will rotate to replace Alonso’s snaps at middle linebacker -- were on the field for 1,389 plays with their respective teams. Combined.

The difference between the gut shots dealt by the Lee and Weatherspoon linebacker injuries earlier this offseason and this one to Alonso lies in depth. There’s little of it at the position in Dallas and Atlanta, but in Buffalo Spikes and Rivers were added to the defensive front, and Preston Brown is an intriguing multi-faceted third-round rookie fresh off his final season in Louisville that ended with 98 tackles and five sacks.

So the blow is softened, but only slightly. The excitement around the Bills’ defense lied both in what Alonso is now, and what he could become under new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. The plan was to have Spikes occupy the middle and then unleash Alonso to chase the ball wherever it took him on the weak side. His role would be similar to the one played by DeAndre Levy last year in Detroit under Schwartz, and he finished with six interceptions and 119 tackles.

Those plans will continue, but the downgrade in personnel will be significant. The plan and hope was that a defense which finished a fine 10th overall in yards allowed per game in 2013 and sixth in yards per play at 4.9 would be ready to take that next leap forward, moving from pretty good to somewhere around great.

Instead that step could go in the opposite direction. Many fine men in the front office and on the coaching staff will be welcomed to unemployment if there’s no playoff football in Buffalo for a 15th straight season, and an offseason which doesn’t include a first-round pick begins.

When that happens they can look back at a rip in early June, long before meaningful football.