Alabama Football: The five greatest threats to a 2017 championship season

Four Players the Tide cannot stand to lose to injury

Thanks to repeated top recruiting classes Alabama football has a deep roster of high-level talent. The trite description of reloading rather than rebuilding applies as much to Alabama as any program in college football.

Having a depth of talent is one thing. Having experienced replacements prepared to step in for the top team leaders is another issue entirely.

In our opinion, the Tide secondary never fully recovered from the loss of Eddie Jackson against TAMU last season. Eddie Jackson as a member of Crimson Tide defense against Clemson could well have gained the Tide a repeat national championship.

Alabama football is deep at so many positions that injuries to star players like Calvin Ridley, Bo Scarbrough, Rashaan Evans and others could be survived through capable replacements.

There are four players Alabama cannot lose to injury for multiple key games. Losing any one of them of them would be a major blow. Losing more than one could end any hope of another championship run.

The four are equally split between the offense and defense, but three of them reside in the trenches. Those four players are Minkah Fitzpatrick, Da’Ron Payne, Jonah Williams and Bradley Bozeman.

Despite its depth, the Alabama football roster does not have four replacement players equal in skill and experience. Beyond skill, the leadership in each position group would be greatly diminished if any of the four could not compete.