Alabama Football: Three draft-eligible juniors announce decisions

Late Monday morning, Alabama football juniors Bryce Young, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Will Anderson Jr. announced their intentions to enter the 2023 NFL Draft. The trio made their announcements via press conference.

While these losses were expected, Alabama will have to replace three of the best players in college football going forward.

Alabama Football: Bryce Young

Quarterback Bryce Young is considered one of the best quarterbacks in school history. Young was ranked as the second-best player overall and the top quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class. After backing up Mac Jones his freshman season, he took the reins as a true sophomore and exceeded lofty expectations.

Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, leading Alabama to an SEC Championship, a Cotton Bowl Classic win, and a national championship appearance. For the year, Young threw for 4,872 yards and 47 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, adding three rushing touchdowns.

Bryce Young and the Alabama football team entered 2022 with sky-high expectations. The season did not go according to plan, as Young suffered a lingering shoulder injury in week five and the Crimson Tide went on to lose two regular season games.

Despite playing in just 12 games, Young managed to throw for 3,328 yards and 36 total touchdowns in his junior year. Throwing to a young and struggling receiving corps, his ingenuity and late-game heroics were on display early and often in the 2022 season.

Bryce Young will leave Tuscaloosa having thrown for 8,356 yards and 80 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions. He finishes with a 23-4 record as a starter.

Alabama Football: Will Anderson Jr.

Outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr. was also a 5-star recruit in the 2020 class. He was a starter and a difference-maker from his first game as a member of the Crimson Tide.

Early in his true freshman season, Anderson Jr. was constantly in the backfield disrupting plays and pressuring quarterbacks, but was often unable to finish plays. He finally recorded his first career sack against Auburn in the eighth game of the season and never looked back.

Will Anderson Jr. finished his freshman season with 52 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, and 7.0 sacks. As a sophomore in 2021, he took college football by storm. Anderson Jr. put together the most statistically dominant season by a college football defensive player in nearly 20 years. He recorded 102 tackles, 34.5 tackles for loss, and 17.5 sacks, putting him in the conversation with modern CFB legends such as Terrell Suggs.

Anderson Jr. followed up this remarkable campaign with another strong showing in his junior season. Despite being constantly game-planned for, Anderson Jr. impacted games all year. He recorded 51 tackles, an SEC-leading 17.5 tackles for loss, and an SEC-leading 10 sacks, sweeping the major postseason awards for defensive players.

For his career, he finishes with 205 tackles, 62 tackles for loss, and 34.5 sacks. His sack numbers officially rank fifth in college football history, despite playing just three seasons (all four players ranked ahead of him played four seasons). Anderson Jr. is also in the top-10 in career tackles for loss.

In Alabama lore, he finishes behind only the late, great Derrick Thomas. Sacks weren’t kept as an official stat in college football until 2000, but Thomas remains the unofficial NCAA record-holder in both single-season (27) and career sacks (52).

As members of the 2020 class, the legacies of Bryce Young and Will Anderson Jr. will forever be intertwined. Over the course of three years, these two cemented themselves as all-time college football greats.

Alabama Football: Jahmyr Gibbs

Running back Jahmyr Gibbs was the third player to announce his departure on Monday. A transfer from Georgia Tech, Gibbs was only in Tuscaloosa for one season, and yet he was able to make a major impact. He finished his junior season with a team-high 926 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. Gibbs also made a team-high 44 receptions for 444 yards and three scores.

His 1,370 yards from scrimmage rank third in the SEC, and his 10 touchdowns are good for tenth in the conference. His signature game came in an SEC road win at Arkansas. Alabama had lost Bryce Young to injury, and Gibbs took over the game with two 70+ yard rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter. He finished the contest with a career-high 206 yards on 11.4 yards per carry.

This trio will be greatly missed in Tuscaloosa, but I expect all of them to do great things in the NFL, just as they did for Alabama football.