Expert predicts the price to solve Alabama’s offensive line issues will keep going up

Alabama has a big problem on its roster and like any foundational issue, it won’t be cheap to fix. No, the Crimson Tide won’t have to throw around $6.5 million offers like Miami reportedly has in an effort to pry Ty Simpson from the 2026 NFL Draft, but like everything in the Transfer Portal, offensive lineman are getting more expensive. 

On Monday, Colorado left tackle and former five-star Jordan Seaton surprisingly entered the Transfer Portal and immediately became the top offensive lineman on the market. Rumors quickly circulated that his asking price was sitting at around $2.5 million, but CBS Sports’ Bud Elliott, a longtime recruiting aficionado, thinks that the negotiations will climb much higher. 

The rumored $2.5 million pricetag for Jordan Seaton could be a low-ball offer for top OT talent

The percentages are not perfect because, as much as some programs and certainly the NCAA would like it to be, the $21 million revenue-sharing pool is not a hard cap. 10 percent of that would be a little over $2 million, but any team that is a serious contender for the College Football Playoff is spending well above that and at least to the $35 million mark that Elliot arbitrarily set. Schools like Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M will well exceed that number. 

Also, value in college football and the NFL is not a one-to-one comparison, but in either sport, offensive linemen are integral. And in both, the best ones typically never see the open market. Over the past few seasons, the offensive line has been one of the weakest portal markets of any position group because programs will typically pay up to keep their homegrown talent. That’s further exacerbated by the fact that offensive linemen typically develop more quickly than other positions and therefore can start earlier in their careers, making spending on high school recruits a better strategy. 

That is largely what Alabama has done, and it paid off last season with Michael Carroll’s emergence at right tackle as a true freshman. However, while it ranks No. 2 in the country, Alabama’s 2026 recruiting class does not include an offensive lineman of Carroll’s caliber. With the other four starting spots up for grabs, Alabama has to dip into the portal, and adding Seaton would be a massive get if the Tide can afford it. 

So far, Alabama has added just two offensive linemen in the portal, 2025 four-star Ty Haywood from Michigan, who arrives with four years of eligibility remaining, and another Michigan transfer Kaden Strayhorn, a 2025 three-star. They’ll join a young core of players in Tuscaloosa and fit Kalen DeBoer’s multi-year timeline. Seaton, on the other hand, would be a one-year solution, almost certainly leaving for the 2027 NFL Draft. 

Even if the Tide don’t land Seaton, he is setting the market for the rest of the players in the portal, and that market seems to be getting more and more expensive. Alabama got priced out of the Cam Coleman sweepstakes and was helpless to stop Hollywood Smothers from flipping to Texas.

That relative lack of resources, compared to the top spenders in the sport, is likely the reason that DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan are so hyper-fixated on building through high school recruiting instead of the portal. And it could prevent Alabama from plugging the most glaring holes on its roster.