Kendell Beckwith is healthy for Buccaneers training camp

Linebacker Kendell Beckwith participated in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first training camp practice yesterday, and appears to be fully healthy. The third-round pick tore his ACL in November and there were many doubts about his being able to play this year, but those concerns were apparently overblown.

The consensus view of draftniks was that the Bucs got a steal in Beckwith, a strong, thumping linebacker with some potential on third downs as a blitzer/pass-rusher. He fell mostly because of his injury, which he’s recovered from—though that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get back to his previous level of play.

With Beckwith healthy, he’ll compete with Devante Bond for a starting spot on the strong side. That’ll be an interesting battle: Bond was a sixth-round pick last year who missed his rookie season with an injury, too. But Bond at least knows the defense and has a little more experience, and has been healthy for basically all of the offseason.