In the first two years of his career, Vikings cornerback Mackensie Alexander looked like a bust after the team took a gamble on him with a second-round pick out of Clemson.
Alexander has made quite the transformation. After a fantastic 2018 in which Alexander graded as the league’s 17th-best cornerback via Pro Football Focus, he’s become one of the better players on the team.
“If you asked me who has turned the corner as far as going in full boat, as far as coaching and believing in the system and all that, I think Mackensie would be the number one guy from where he started, which was not the best,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Monday.
Alexander seems to have matured quite a bit and at age 25, he’s helping lead some of the younger cornerbacks, something Zimmer did not see coming.
“He has done a great job now; he takes extra reps and I see him coaching the young guys. It is way different and I am proud of him. . . ,” Zimmer continued. “We had a lot of conversations when he was younger and I kind of told him there were two paths to take. He decided to take the other one.”
The 2019 season is a huge season for Alexander. He’s in the final season of his rookie contract and he’ll have the opportunity to get paid this offseason depending on his play.
With the way he’s changed, and the upside he still has, the Vikings would love to have him back. That’s something the team might not have been able to predict three years ago.
