Alabama's offensive line depth is CRAZY

AtoZ Sports

Clint Lamb discusses Alabama's offensive line depth and why it makes the Crimson Tide so dangerous in 2025.

Transcript

00:00Alabama's roster is good enough to compete for a national championship in 2025,

00:04but there's one position group in particular that's going to be critical

00:08to the outcome of Alabama's season. Today, we dive two feet into what position group that is and why.

00:18What is up, everybody? Clint Lamb with A to Z Sports and Cover Crimson.

00:22Today, we're going to be talking about one position group in particular that's going to

00:26have a massive impact on the outcome of Alabama's season, and that is Alabama's offensive line.

00:32So what I'm going to do to talk about this is address a question that I was given by Kyle on

00:37Twitter. I don't have a last name, but he submitted a question. I thought it was a fantastic question

00:41because it's not just about the starters along your offensive line. At some point, someone's

00:46going to have to miss a little bit of time. That's typically how it goes. So you've got to have depth,

00:51whether it's a tackle or on the interior, if you want to be competitive, and that goes beyond the

00:55offensive line. That's at pretty much every position, but especially on the offensive line

01:00because you've got to have adequate protection up front, and you've got to have an offensive line

01:04that can consistently create movement in the run game. So Kyle's question is, what is our depth like

01:10behind these guys? And he means the starters, who I talked about yesterday. Kalen Nabor mentioned

01:16six starters for Alabama or six players who were involved in that rotation. You've got Caden Proctor

01:21and Wilkin Formby as your two tackles. You have Jaden Roberts, a surefire starter at right

01:26guard, assuming help. You have Parker Brelsford as the starting center, and then you also have

01:30Cam Dewberry and Geno Vandermark still battling it out at left guard to potentially replace Tyler

01:35Booker. So when he says, what is our depth like behind these guys? Obviously, they're starters for a

01:41reason, but should we be concerned about depth at any of these spots, or do we have solid backup

01:46options? Now, Kyle, that's a fantastic question, and I think it's a question that a lot of Alabama

01:51fans have. I do think that not only Alabama has probably one of the better collective units as far

01:58as your offensive line in college football right there at the top, but they also have the needed

02:03depth, and I don't think people are giving the depth enough credit. Now, am I saying that you're

02:09going to have guys like Ola Salinen or Jackson Lloyd or Joe Ayanada come in if they have to assume

02:16a starting role, and you're going to get as good of play out of them as you would be getting out of

02:20your starters? No. There's going to be a drop-off regardless of who has to replace who, but I think

02:27that they can get by with a lot of these players, and that's really what we need to be talking about.

02:31So we'll start with the interior because I think that's the more solidified position as far as the

02:36depth is concerned. You have, in my opinion, four starting caliber players on the inside, which

02:41Kalen DeBoer spoke to yesterday at SEC Media Days, and now, once again, that's Parker Brelsford,

02:47Jaden Roberts, Geno Vandermark, and Cam Dewberry, but I also think you've got a couple of more pieces

02:53if you had to go to them. Now, whoever ends up losing that battle between Dewberry and Geno Vandermark

02:58at left guard, if it ends up being Geno Vandermark, who's the starter, then if something were to happen

03:03to Parker Brelsford, then I would assume that Geno would slide over to center and Cam Dewberry would

03:07come in at left guard. But if it's Geno Vandermark, he has the ability to play all three interior

03:12offensive line positions at quite a high level, so it would just be okay if Jaden Roberts gets

03:18banged up and has to miss some time, Geno Vandermark goes in at right guard. If it's Parker

03:22Brelsford, he goes in at center. And then, of course, if he's in that battle with Cam Dewberry at left

03:26guard, if an injury happens to Dewberry, once again, you've got Geno Vandermark coming in.

03:31But once again, it goes beyond that. And I think one of the critical pieces who I've heard a lot

03:36about as far as guys who are taking significant steps forward in their development is Will Sanders.

03:42Now, this was a guy who on three was pretty high on. They had him rated close to, I think,

03:47being a top 100 prospect. Not all of their recruiting services were in agreement, though.

03:52So kind of all over the place as far as his high school evaluation. But this guy is one of the best

03:56pullers that I've seen on the high school level. He's got the athleticism to not only pull,

04:01but get out in space and hit moving targets, get guys blocked. And I think in a Kalen DeBoer

04:06offense, that pin and pull and a lot of different things that you will see in the offense, I think

04:10he's a perfect fit. So that's a guy who continues to generate some buzz. Do I think he's ready to be

04:15a starter? Probably not. But as far as your depth options, and if you had to work to him, whether it

04:21be temporarily or permanently, I think that he would continue to get better as he got more experience

04:27and more development. But I also think that you would get effective play out of him until that

04:31happened. But then you've got guys like Rob Montgomery, Joe Iannata, Casey Poe. They got high

04:36quality options the further you work down the depth chart. But they're just not proven options, and it's

04:41no one that you probably want to rely on. But they've got several players where if they had to start

04:46working into that interior depth, I think they could do it and get by with it. But tackle is where it

04:50gets interesting. Because I think Caden Proctor is going to be one of the best left tackles in college

04:55football. I think Wilkin Formby, despite the fact that he struggled last year in his limited time as a

05:01starter, including against USF, I think he's going to take massive steps forward. I still think you're

05:06going to see some growing pains out of him. But I think he's got tremendous upside. And I think he's

05:11going to be, bare minimum, a quality, adequate starter there on the right side to help give Alabama

05:17one of the better tackle duos in the SEC, if not in the country. But behind them, that's where things

05:22get really interesting. Because you have a guy like Ola Salinan, who has primarily been an interior

05:27player since getting to Alabama. And I think long term, that's still where you're going to see him

05:32ultimately end up. But he proved in the spring, with Alabama having limited numbers at tackle,

05:38that he could step out. And with Caden Proctor being limited or out, he took over at left tackle,

05:43was the first team guy out there. And while he started off struggling a little bit, he got better,

05:48progressively better throughout the spring, to a point where I thought he was pretty good on a date.

05:53So that's certainly encouraging. But I think when you start talking about long term, and long term

05:58being the midway point of the season towards the latter half of the season, I wouldn't be shocked if

06:02by that point, the two talented freshmen, Jackson Lloyd and Michael Carroll, end up pushing him for

06:08a job. Jackson Lloyd was a top 50 recruit, one of the better tackles in all of college football.

06:13And Michael Carroll was the number one interior offensive lineman, according to a lot of recruiting

06:18services. So when you combine those two players, and Michael Carroll has been playing tackle with

06:23the limited numbers at 6'6", having just over 33 inch arms, he's got the length needed to play tackle.

06:30Now I still think he's going to be more of a long term guy on the interior, but he has the ability to

06:35play tackle in the short term. He was playing right tackle mostly throughout the spring, and he brings

06:40that athleticism, that size, that nastiness that you want with your offensive lineman.

06:45But Jackson Lloyd brings a ton of athleticism. The fact that he's already sitting at 318 pounds,

06:51I think is fantastic for him. He played last year, his senior year of high school at roughly about

06:56280 pounds. So he's put on substantial weight, still moves extremely well, and now he's really

07:01starting to look like an SEC tackle. So I'm excited to see how he develops on the left side with Michael

07:06Carroll on the right. But between those two guys, I think you're going to have depth. I think you're

07:11going to have impact play there at the top. But then if you have to start working into that depth,

07:15you can get serviceable or passable impact from those guys where you can get the job done.

07:21So while I do think that the offensive line is somewhat of a question mark, like you still got

07:26to see it. We've been hyping up the offensive line for what feels like the last several seasons.

07:30I feel better about this group than I have in the last couple of years with the depth and

07:35rotation that I think they're going to have at that spot.

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