Year 1 of the Kalen DeBoer era fell a bit short of expectations, but only because in Tuscaloosa, the expectation is a championship every year. Now, coming off his 9-4 season leading the Crimson Tide, DeBoer had another offseason to construct the roster in his image, and maybe more importantly, to keep the core of last season’s team intact.
In the transfer portal era, retention may be even more important than acquisition, and while DeBoer didn’t make any major upgrades in the portal, he effectively supplemented the returning talent. So, after the first Alabama season without double-digit wins since 2007, Nick Saban’s first year, the Tide looks poised to get back on track.
Alabama fans won’t be happy with anything less than a College Football Playoff appearance, nor should they. And if the Crimson Tide clear that bar, it’ll likely be on the backs of these five returning stars who led the way in 2024.
Here’s a look at Alabama’s five best returning players for the 2025 season.
Jihaad Campbell was the star of Alabama’s linebacking corps, especially after Lawson suffered an injury against Oklahoma in Week 13 that cut his season short. Though Lawson and Campbell, now a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, were a dynamic linebacking duo, they did have their share of weaknesses in coverage.
Lawson finished the season with 76 tackles, two sacks, and four pass breakups, but he’s far from an elite coverage player, which Vanderbilt and Diego Pavia exposed with a heavy dose of play-action. Lawson will be rock-steady in the run game for the Crimson Tide, but for him to follow Campbell as an early-round pick in next year’s draft, he’ll need to make strides in coverage.
Parker Brailsford followed DeBoer from Washington after the young center was an undoubtedly huge part of the Huskies' run to the 2024 National Championship Game. He had another steady season as an interior pass protector, and his experience will be a huge asset to Ty Simpson in his first season as the Crimson Tide’s starting QB in 2025.
After transferring from Texas A&M, Overton was Alabama’s most disruptive defensive lineman last season, generating a team-high 39 quarterback pressures, but he only managed two sacks. At 280 pounds on the edge, Overton uses his size to play the run game well, but he had a 20% missed tackle rate last season and will need to finish off more negative plays when he does bust into the backfield.
Overton’s pass-rush win-rate of 18.0 percent ranked eighth in the SEC among defensive linemen with at least 100 pass-rushing snaps, but he had the lowest sack total among the top 10. Disruption is great, but sacks are better, and if he finishes a few more off, he’ll be one of the truly elite pass rushers in the country.
Kadyn Proctor has had an interesting career trajectory, transferring away from Alabama for an offseason, only to return from Iowa for his sophomore campaign. Now, Proctor is entering his junior season with two years of starting experience, and the 6-foot-7, 360-pound left tackle is a potential first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Proctor is a rock-solid pass-protector, and with his massive size, Alabama averaged 9.8 yards per attempt on runs off the left tackle and 4.5 rushing off the left end of the offensive line. Despite Jalen Milroe’s rushing prowess, Alabama only ranked 36th in EPA/rush last season and both Alabama running backs, Jam Miller and Justice Haynes posted a rushing success rate of 40% or below, but that likely had more to do with Milroe’s questionable decision making on option-runs than any issues in the trenches, especially on the left side.
Ryan Williams isn’t just the best player on Alabama’s roster heading into 2025, the 18-year-old could be one of the best players in the entire country. While he didn’t quite keep pace with fellow freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith Jr. at Ohio State, Williams finished his 17-year-old campaign with 48 catches for 865 yards and eight touchdowns. He came through in huge moments, particularly against Georgia.
With Germie Bernard also back, Simpson will have an elite wide receiver group to throw to in 2025, and with better production likely to follow offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s reunion with DeBoer, Williams could find himself in the Heisman Trophy conversation alongside Smith and the elite quarterbacks around the country this season.