The Tampa Bay Buccaneers placed linebacker Kendell Beckwith on the reserve/non-football injury list on Friday. Beckwith missed the entire 2018 season, his second in the NFL, after sustaining an ankle injury in a car accident in the spring and subsequently undergoing surgery.
Beckwith will not count against the Buccaneers' 90-man offseason roster limit.
Beckwith's NFL career began in promising fashion, as the third-round pick out of LSU won the Buccaneers' starting strongside linebacker job at the start of his rookie campaign. He later moved to middle linebacker when Kwon Alexander missed a month due to injury and performed well in that capacity as well. In all, Beckwith played in all 16 games in 2017, logging nine starts and contributing 73 tackles, one sack, two passes defensed and a forced fumble.
Beckwith's professional career even include an impressive return from injury, as an ACL tear ended his last season at LSU prematurely. That mishap occurred in November of 2016 and the Buccaneers selected him with the 107th overall pick without knowing if he would be fully recovered by the start of the 2017 season. Instead, Beckwith was cleared to start training camp and never had a setback with his knee. However, his second bit of injury misfortune – he was a passenger in the car involved in the accident – has proved more difficult to overcome. Beckwith began the 2018 season on the NFI list and did return to the practice field during a three-week roster-exemption window around midseason, but he was not subsequently cleared to return to game action.
