3 elite pass rushers Alabama must prioritize after the Tank Jones heartbreak

The entire state of Alabama was seemingly in on the recruitment of Mobile-native Tank Jones to the Crimson Tide, but in the days before his Thursday commitment, the momentum shifted to the Pacific Northwest. 

The 2026 five-star is the No. 18 player in the country according to 247Sports Composite Rankings and the top-ranked player in Alabama. Jones announced his commitment to Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks on Thursday afternoon on the Pat McAfee show, breaking hearts in his home state. 

Now that the Ducks have officially plucked the top player out of Alabama for the second time in as many years, Kalen DeBoer and his staff will have to turn their attention elsewhere if they want to replace Jones in the 2026 recruiting class. Early signing day isn’t until December, but considering how late it is in the recruiting cycle, that won’t be an easy task. 

Only one of the top 10 edge rushers in the country remains uncommitted, four-star Jake Kreul, who has cut his finalists down to Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and Texas. Beyond the top 10, 38 of the top 40 edges in the nation have already announced their commitments, just two of them to the Crimson Tide (not including hybrid five-star linebacker Xavier Griffin). 

So, if DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan are intent on filling the spot that was earmarked for Jones, they’ll have to dip into the flip market to do so. Here are three top flip candidates that the Tide have shown interest in throughout the recruiting process. 

Harris committed to Auburn last summer, but the in-state recruit has recently been placed on flip-watch. At 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, he’s an elite four-star prospect, but he didn’t take an official visit to Tuscaloosa this spring, so the Tide would need to do a lot of work to restart his recruitment and make up for lost time. 

The Tide missed out on KJ Ford when he committed to Florida earlier this month, but as a finalist for the four-star edge rusher, DeBoer and Morgan could have an opportunity to change his mind between now and the early signing period. 

Georgia native Khamari Brooks seems locked in with the Bulldogs since his June commitment, but Alabama finished No. 2 in the four-star’s recruitment, so if he has second thoughts, his first call would almost certainly be to Tuscaloosa. 

Commitments seem less secure than ever in the NIL era, but realistically, Jones will be almost impossible for Alabama to replace in the 2026 class. The silver lining is that DeBoer and Morgan never intended to sign a massive class, so with 21 commits and the No. 4-ranked class in the country, the staff in Tuscaloosa can comfortably stand pat.