Alabama Football: Top 10 Crimson Tide players not named Tua
By Ronald Evans
The Bama Hammer staff put our heads together to select the 10 most important players, not named Tua, for Alabama football in the coming season.
For the many Alabama football fans residing in the Deep South, July weather is an endurance contest. Shrouded by oppressive heat and high humidity, the pace of life slows. It will not stay slow for long.
Fall camp for the Alabama Crimson Tide is less than a month away. With the start of camp, Nick Saban will lecture us all on organizational groupings rather than depth charts. Alabama football fans will view short snippets of camp drills trying to pick out which players are on the Crimson Tide two-deep.
Bama Hammer will try to help by offering a Fall Camp Depth Chart, the day before camp begins. In the interval, we decided on an exercise to define the 10 most important players for the Crimson Tide in the upcoming season. For the obvious reason, Tua would be ranked No. 1, we excluded him from our selections. So, in reality, we selected a Top 11, with no concern for positions. The task was simply who are the 10 players, other than Tua, most important to Alabama football success in 2019.
The four Bama Hammer staff members taking part were Jonathan Waldrop, Lauri Springer and Zachary Mangum and me.
A total of twenty Crimson Tide players made up our four individual lists. Six out of the top eight selections in our final tabulation are defensive players. If some of the vote totals look a bit odd, it is because one of us picked four wide receivers at the No. 10 spot. In our tabulation, a No. 10 spot is equal to one point, so the four received 0.25 points each.
The one unanimous selection was …
No. 1 – Dylan Moses – 40 points
Most Alabama football fans will agree the player the Tide can least afford to lose to injury (after Tua) is Dylan Moses. Perhaps by late in the 2019 season, another player will have developed enough to be an adequate replacement. Unless or until then, Dylan is the man on the defense.
No. 2 – Xavier McKinney – 34 points
The thinking which will become obvious as readers scroll down the page is the Bama Hammer staff believes improved play in the secondary is essential to 2019 success. McKinney is the secondary’s alpha, able to help make the overall unit better than its individual parts.
No. 3 – Najee Harris – 22 points
Our staff is looking forward to a dominating performance by Najee as he gets the most carries in his career.
No. 4 – Jedrick Wills – 21 points
Gaining almost as many points as Najee is pretty impressive for an offensive lineman. Wills is a leader the Tide needs as it replaces Jonah Williams.
No. 5 – Trevon Diggs – 18 points
The too-often injured Trevon Diggs is expected to have a tremendous senior season in which his performance matches his athleticism.
No. 6 – Raekwon Davis – 13 points
Kwon made a smart decision to stick around for what many see as the college equivalent of a contract year. He is expected to be the impact player he was in his sophomore campaign.
No. 7 – Shyheim Carter – 10 points
Shyheim Carter is the quietly solid player who can fill any of the secondary roles. Teammates sometimes refer to him as the guy who most thinks like Nick Saban.
No. 8 – Terrell Lewis – 9 points
The only thing standing between Terrell and predictions of a massive senior season are concerns about his recovery from injury.
No. 9 – Jerry Jeudy – 8.25 points
Of course, the returning Biletnikoff winner would make our Top 10. He is likely to again be the best wide receiver in college football.
No. 10 – Jaylen Waddle – 6.25 points
Waddle’s freshman season was outstanding, particularly when considering the three guys in front of him he had to split time among. He makes the most of his touches.
The next 10 in our combined selections
No. 11 – Brian Robinson – 6 points
No. 12 – Henry Ruggs III – 5.25 points
No. 13 – Alex Leatherwood – 5 points
No. 14 – (tied), Anfernee Jennings, D.J. Dale and Eyabi Anoma – 4 points
No. 17 – (tied) Patrick Surtain II and LaBryan Ray – 2 points
No. 19 – Chris Owens – 1 point
No. 20 – Devonta Smith – 0.25 points
Next. Post-Spring Depth Chart. dark
That’s it Alabama football fans. The guys we deem are most important to success in 2019. Chime in below if you disagree.