Alabama Football: Pre-Spring Crimson Tide Defensive Depth Chart

Days away from the start of spring training for Alabama football, review a projected, defensive depth chart for the first week of practice.

Opportunities aplenty await Alabama football defensive players this spring. The Crimson Tide will look to improve last season’s performance. In 2020, the Tide defense may not have as explosive an offense to simply outscore opponents. The flip side of that is the Crimson Tide defenders should be primed to reclaim their superiority.

Defensive Line

This unit could become the strength of the Crimson Tide defense in the latter half of the season. The spring numbers do not include three freshmen who can contribute next fall. Barring injury, the Tide’s defensive front should have the fall numbers to rotate eight solid players.

Many of the guys on the defensive front can play inside or outside. Barmore and Young are two examples. They are listed below by their expected primary position.

First Unit in Bold

• Defensive Ends: LaBryan Ray and Christian Barmore; Justin Eboigbe, Braylen Ingraham
• Nose Tackle: D.J. Dale; Phidarian Mathis and Byron Young

A big question for the spring is Ishmael Sopsher. He is believed to be in better shape than at anytime last season. His officially listed weight is 334 pounds. That is about 30 pounds lighter than last season. That is 20 pounds heavier than Phil Mathis. Perhaps the new conditioning team can get another 10-15 pounds off him by next fall.

The three summer additions are Tim Smith, Jah-Marian Latham and Jamil Burroughs. A too-early guess, based solely on recruiting rep is Smith has the best chance to break into the regular fall rotation.