Alabama Crimson Tide: Jaylen Waddle can turn No. Seventeen Jerseys into Eighteens

Alabama Crimson Tide: Jaylen Waddle Can Help Turn Generic Number Seventeen Jerseys Into Eighteens

Jaylen Waddle is a major key for the next Alabama Crimson Tide National Championship run. He can help lead the Alabama offense to possibly win their eighteenth National title this college football season.

Here in Alabama, if you go into a Wal-Mart and go to the apparel section, something you might find for sale is generic number seventeen Alabama Crimson Tide football jerseys. On the back, instead of a player’s name, they say Crimson Tide and the number seventeen represents the number of National Championships the Alabama Crimson Tide have. Alabama leads all of college football with that outstanding seventeen National Championships (excluding Princeton and Yale) and they could be well on their way to winning number eighteen this year. The possible key to getting there for the Alabama Crimson Tide may be junior wide-receiver Jaylen Waddle. The 5’10, 182 pounds Houston, Texas native may be the player the Alabama Crimson Tide needs to lean on for the rest of the 2020 college football season.

What Jaylen Waddle Has Done So Far This Season

For the Alabama Crimson Tide, Waddle has emerged as one of two parts of a dynamic duo at wide receiver with him and Devonta Smith. He’s really come together as an all-around talented receiver and showed a lot of ability running routes along with his special teams returning talents. Waddle brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the receiver room for Alabama and has been hard to defend in 2020 so far. In week one at Missouri, he snagged eight catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns for the Alabama Crimson Tide. His performance helped them beat the Tigers 38-19 in Columbia.

In week two Waddle had five receptions for 142 yards and a touchdown catch against Texas A&M in route to a 52-24 win over the Aggies. Jaylen has really shown so far that he can make plays on defenses from multiple positions. In week three for Alabama, Waddle pulled in six catches for 120 yards versus Ole Miss as the Alabama Crimson Tide would win 63-48 in Oxford. Through three games Jaylen Waddle has really stretched these defenses and has been a defensive nightmare. He’s totaled 19 receptions for 396 yards and three touchdowns for Alabama with an average of 20.8 yards per catch. Quarterback Mac Jones and the Crimson Tide offense have a lot of offensive weapons, but they need to make sure they get Jaylen Waddle the ball often in the rest of Alabama’s games.

What Waddle Can Do The Rest Of The Season For Alabama

For the rest of this college football season, Jaylen Waddle can continue to be an electrifying offensive weapon for the Crimson Tide. Coach Nick Saban can move Waddle around on offense and keep SEC defenses off their guard for the rest of the year. The Alabama Crimson Tide can use Jaylen at a multitude of positions on the field and really stretch defenses thin. His versatility will be needed in big games and big moments of those games this year. Some of the games Jaylen will need to make an impact in coming up include against Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, and the Iron Bowl versus Auburn.

Waddle will need to put up over 100 yards receiving in each game and it would help the Alabama Crimson Tide if he caught a touchdown in each game. He’s capable of getting around 1,200 to 1,500 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season even with other offensive threats around him like Najee Harris and Devonta Smith who will also touch the ball a lot as well. If Jaylen can put together a Heisman type season at wide receiver, he could really help lead this offense back to the SEC Championship, the College Football Playoffs, and a National Championship.

If the Alabama Crimson Tide wants to be back in the National Championship in 2020, I believe Jaylen Waddle is the key to getting there. Not only do I think Alabama can get there because of him, I believe he’s such a special talent, that they can win their eighteenth National title behind him on offense.

Even with other talented players on this offense, I think Waddle should be the go-to guy. He’s an overly special football player. Maybe, just maybe, he can help turn generic number seventeen jerseys into eighteens.