Position Week: Four offseason questions for Alabama wide receivers
BamaOnLine will spend the next 10 weeks breaking down position groups on Alabama’s 2024 roster leading up to the start of preseason camp. We continue with the wide receiver room.
To kick off our third position week, here are four questions for the Crimson Tide receivers.
How much will WRs produce in DeBoer’s offense?
Last year, Washington was the only FBS team with more than 5,000 passing yards and was one of three teams that produced a pair of 1,110-yard receivers. Rome Odunze led all players with over 1,600 receiving yards during the 2023 season on his way to becoming a top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and two of his teammates, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan, were also chosen in the top-100 selections. In each of Kalen DeBoer’s two years at UW, the Huskies fielded one of the best passing attacks in the country, which has Alabama excited.
But can the Crimson Tide’s wide receivers produce similar numbers? That remains to be seen. It is unclear if Alabama has a first-round wideout on its current roster, though a number of its current pass-catchers have plenty of promise. One of the newest additions, Germie Bernard, has the look of a WR1 and knows the offense well, having played in it before transferring to UA. Bernard called it “explosive” and not just for the guys in his unit. It will be hard to duplicate UW’s offensive success, but the Tide should expect some fireworks.
“We got a lot of young guys,” Bernard said. “We got people that have some experience in games. We got people that can make plays. Our room is going to be something special. We’re very underrated, but we’re going to show a lot of people what we can do.”
Which players make up Alabama’s receiver rotation?
Alabama saw five receivers leave the program, including four via the NCAA transfer portal, after last season ended. Also included in that number were the Tide’s top two wideouts on last year’s team and the three receivers who started the most games during the 2023 campaign. So Alabama’s rotation, whether the first players on the field or the first off the bench, will look a lot different this fall. While there are a few receivers who played first-team snaps, they will be stepping into larger roles to replace Jermaine Burton and Isaiah Bond.
Kobe Prentice, now a junior, finished third among the Tide receivers in receptions and receiving yards, and he and Kendrick Law are the most experienced wideouts returning for Alabama as they both enter their third years in the program. That duo, along with Bernard, seem like the top choices to fill the three starting spots. Outside of them, UA also welcomed back four others to the wide receiver room, including junior Emmanuel Henderson, sophomore Jalen Hale (more below) and redshirt freshmen Cole Adams and Jaren Hamilton.
Henderson could also be in line for more playing time after he missed the first five games of the 2023 season due to injury. The same goes for Adams, who generated positive buzz this spring. Bernard led Alabama in receiving in the A-Day Game, but Adams (3 catches for 46 yards) and Henderson (3 catches, 21 yards) finished second and third, respectively. The Crimson Tide will need its returning players to step up, and in the team’s 15 spring practices, several of them seemed to do just that. We will see if that carries over to the preseason.
Kobe Prentice (Courtesy of Alabama Athletics)
“There were a lot of explosive plays that happen at practice, and the first thing I saw was everyone was celebrating with each other,” said Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. “… We have shared success in each of the rooms. That’s one thing I can say about the receivers. They’re all explosive. They’re all hungry. They come with different ages, but it doesn’t matter because when you get on the field, they all play explosive.”
Will Hale be able to play at all this season?
Now-sophomore Jalen Hale suffered a significant knee injury during the spring and was seen with a bulky brace on his leg at the spring game as he used a walker to slowly move around the field. Hale played in 13 of Alabama’s 14 games as a true freshman last season, and he finished seventh on the team with 148 receiving yards on just five catches. He seemed poised to take on a larger role in his second year before sustaining his injury while at practice.
Now, the chances of him playing during the 2024 season don’t look great – at least not during the regular season – but DeBoer commended the young wideout for his approach to his rehab and didn’t rule out a return should the Crimson Tide reach the playoff. That comes less than two months after the injury occurred. If he continues to progress, who knows. Hale could return sooner. But for now, any positive news is great for the second-year receiver.
“This season will certainly be a tough one, but I don’t wanna also say that he would be out the entire year,” DeBoer said earlier this month. “Also, it depends on how long the season goes. He’s done an amazing job, and the process and recovery for him has been sped up just even since the injury happened back in the spring. He’s got an amazing mindset about him, and because of that, that’s why he’s having that progress at such a fast pace.”
Where will the quartet of true freshmen fit in?
In addition to Bernard, Alabama added five other receivers to its corps this offseason via the high school ranks. Two were on campus for spring ball with Bubba Hampton and Caleb Odom participating in practice. Odom had actually been with the team for its playoff work back in December, but then, he had been getting reps at tight end. But after creating some positive buzz in bowl prep, the 6-foot-5 newcomer switched to receiver in the spring, giving the Tide a bigger target at the position, and the move garnered high praise in early March.
“Caleb Odom is one of the biggest receivers we have in our room,” Law said. “He has tremendous ball dominance. He sees the ball, he tracks the ball and he catches the ball. And he’s most aggressive at the line. People are gonna fear him coming off the line.”
Three more true freshman receivers will join the team this summer, as Ryan Williams, Amari Jefferson and Rico Scott will enroll soon. Jefferson and Scott were considered 4-star recruits in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, while Williams was a Five-Star Plus talent as the country’s fifth-best prospect after reclassifying from the 2025 cycle. All of the new guys will look to compete for playing time this fall, but Odom and Williams seem like the most likely to crack the rotation in their first years in the Alabama program.
The post Position Week: Four offseason questions for Alabama wide receivers appeared first on On3.
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