The 2015 NFL season, spent with the Philadelphia Eagles, didn't go exactly how Kiko Alonso hoped. Returning from a serious knee injury that wiped out the entirety of his 2014 season, when he was still with the team that drafted him, the Buffalo Bills, Alonso struggled to stay healthy and on the field for Philly.
Despite an absolutely explosive rookie season wherein he collected 159 total tackles, 2 sacks, one forced fumble and four interceptions and "The Legend of Kiko Alonso" was born, Alonso posted just 43 tackles and one interception in 11 games of his second on-field NFL season.
Now with the Miami Dolphins, Alonso is surely hoping to put the frustrating 2015 season far in his rearview mirror and get back to his playmaking ways. Alonso's new Dolphins teammate and linebacker running mate, Koa Misi, thinks the longhaired, soft-spoken Alonso shouldn't have any problems doing just that.
"He's fast," Misi said. "He can make plays. I'm not sure where everybody is playing this year, but I watched him when he was in Buffalo. He was a great player. We'll see what he can do for us this year."
Alonso came into the league as a second-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft viewed by many as an undersized guy that would likely struggle against the league's bigger offensive lines and running backs.
But that first season in Buffalo Alonso seemed to put just about every fear regarding his playing style and lanky frame to rest. Nearly every impact play the Buffalo defense made, Alonso was in on.
That torn ACL in the early stages of the 2014 preseason and the subsequent hiring of Rex Ryan as the new Bills head coach the following offseason would portend Alonso's exit from Buffalo though, and despite a return to the scheme in which he excelled in college at Oregon, the 3-4, with the Eagles and Chip Kelly in 2015, things just never seemed to click for Alonso.
Now back to a 4-3 with the Dolphins and two years removed from his injury, the expectation from pundits, as well as Misi, is that Alonso will get back to resembling the player he once was not all that long ago with the Bills.
