Sam Bradford and Kwon Alexander ruled out for Buccaneers-Vikings

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have to play the Minnesota Vikings without star linebacker Kwon Alexander, who hasn’t practiced all week and has now officially been ruled out for Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury.

Losing Alexander is a pretty big blow, but the Bucs may have the best 4-3 linebacking corps around. Rookie Kendell Beckwith will presumably take Alexander’s place, as he did last week after Alexander left that game. Beckwith performed very well, though he’s not the fastest guy around in pass coverage.

Other than that and a flu bug, the Bucs are mostly healthy. Gerald McCoy missed a practice early this week with an ankle injury, but is listed as questionable and was able to fully participate today—which indicates he’ll probably play on Sunday.

Linebacker Devante Bond might be able to return to play after missing last week’s game as he hasn’t missed or been limited in a practice all week, while cornerback Brent Grimes is nursing a shoulder injury but should be good to go.

That flu bug might be a bit of an issue, though. Defensive linemen Chris Baker and Jacquies Smith missed the entire week with the flu, while Kevin Pamphile caught the bug today. It’s not clear whether they’ll be able to play on Sunday, or whether that bug will claim some more victims.

As for the Vikings, they’ll have to play without Sam Bradford: he’s been declared out with a lingering knee injury, which means they’ll turn to Case Keenum again. I wish them little luck with that. Other than that the Vikings are largely healthy and shouldn’t have any other players out with injury.