Through the first quarter of the 2017 season, Kendell Beckwith is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' leading tackler with 36, 32 of which are solo stops. It wasn't supposed to be that way.
Beckwith's spot at the top of the Bucs' tackle chart is the result of his own outstanding play plus some specific injury fortune, both good and bad. The good is Beckwith himself; the knee injury he suffered at LSU last November caused him to drop to the third round of the draft and was thought to possibly delay the start of his NFL career.