Mo Alexander has been a Ram starting safety since gm #10 back in 2015, when TJ McDonald got injured & went to the IR.Mo finished the 2015 season with 5 starts & played major roles in 14 of the 16 games that season. His performance in the SS post was good for a 2nd yr player.
In 2016 Mo won the high safety post as the starter & started 14 games there & received high recognition's from many. So its not like he is an inexperienced safety we are discussing. But this 2017 season has been bad for Mo from the start.
Back on Jun 19, 2017 Mo came up injured (Hip).
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/rams-mo-alexander-nursing-hip-injury/
Then when TC opened up on 7/29/2017 on the non-football injury list,Hip.
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/rams-mo-alexander-opens-camp-on-nfi-list/
Then on Sep 13, 2017 the Rams listed Mo in dealing with a shoulder injury.
http://theramswire.usatoday.com/201...s-washington-redskins-injury-report-practice/
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/rams-mo-alexander-dealing-with-shoulder-injury/
In the Dallas game
Mo did not have a single tackle but did manage to help out on a few assists But it was the poor pass coverage that stood out more than his MIA in run support. Not what you would expect from this ex LB'er in college.
One issue could be that shoulder is worse than time can fix, just ask Rodger Saffold about that. Could be Mo is trying to work through this injury & see if he can play effective enough to keep from going to the IR & surgery. Sometime things like this go on. If Mo is unable to preform the duties as we observed last Sunday then maybe Mo has bought enough time so rookie JJ is ready to take over in wk 5 or wk 6?? It would also indicate the Rams have no faith in the reserve strong safety Marqui Christian @ the moment & there is a reason for that too.
In pre season we saw Isaiah Johnson & John Johnson getting a ton of work in the strong safety post. Both looked good JJ looked faster & better in coverage but a bit light in his tackling.....speed bump up to wk 4 & we see a large improvement in JJ's tackling. I know many have issues with stats when I bring them out so I mentioned it
but when our 4 yr safety MO could not muster not one tackle our 3rd string high safety got FOUR (4) in a reserve role. Now that one stat tells me something.