Kalen DeBoer’s critics, and there are quite a few since he made the move to replace Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, have plenty of ammo heading into his third season with the Crimson Tide. Sure, he led Alabama back to the College Football Playoff, and even got a road win in the first round, but the weaknesses were just too glaring in the team’s four losses.
The most obvious deficiency was in the run game, but pass protection was a close second on the offense, especially when veterans Josh Cuevas and Jam Miller missed time late in the year. It wasn’t just a talent issue either, at least not as Cuevas explained it with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman on their podcast from the Senior Bowl on Tuesday.
What does Alabama need to do to get back on track for next season?@JCuev_80 joins @AndyStaples from the @seniorbowl to discuss what Alabama can improve upon in the upcoming year.https://t.co/93D7kBHLaz pic.twitter.com/mHmJDXMN1a
— Andy & Ari On3 (@AndyAriOn3) January 27, 2026
“I can tell you right now,” Cuevas, who followed DeBoer from Washington to Alabama, said to Staples, “Our communication up front, whether it be O-line, tight ends, just stuff like that. Protections checks and stuff from the quarterback that can get tremendously better. I think we had a little bit of trouble handling pressure, and blitzes, and stuff from defenses all year.”
Josh Cuevas highlights how much room for improvement Alabama has up front
Cuevas didn’t really pull any punches when describing the areas that DeBoer and his staff need to rectify. It’s obvious that Alabama wasn’t handling blitz pickups well, but a bit surprising to hear that Cuevas lumped “the quarterback,” Ty Simpson, in with those problems.
Simpson was given a ton of responsibility at the line of scrimmage in his first year as the team’s starting quarterback. While he was around for three years, sitting behind Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe, he may not have been ready to handle so much at the line of scrimmage.
Simpson was fantastic for most of the year, and many times it seemed as though he was getting the Tide into the right play, but there were other instances when DeBoer was forced to burn a timeout because Simpson couldn’t get things set before the play-clock ran out. It’s possible that more of those protection lapses were on Simpson than it seemed in the moment, but there were enough for the blame to be shared all around. And when that’s the case, it ultimately falls back on the head coach.
DeBoer and his longtime offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, run a very advanced pro-style offensive system. For the most part, Simpson picked it up quickly, but they may need to simplify things with another first-year starter taking over next year, whether it’s Austin Mack or Keelon Russell in his redshirt freshman year.
Roster changes up front should help protection improve, too. But if it’s a communication issue, as Cuevas says, it may not matter how talented a group DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan assemble. DeBoer has to get these issues fixed for the Tide to compete for a national championship because with players like Cuevas, Simpson, and Miller heading for the NFL, the Tide are getting even younger in 2026.