Alabama football: Offensive skill positions giving 2017 vibe

The Alabama offense is going to be interesting in 2023. Not only is it breaking in a new offensive coordinator in former Notre Dame play-caller Tommy Rees, but it’s also preparing for life after Bryce Young at quarterback. Needless to say, those are two significant changes from a season ago.

I did notice something recently when looking over all the skill position talent on Alabama’s roster.

In a lot of ways, the personnel is shaping up to look like the 2017 group, especially if the current favorite to start at quarterback lines up behind center. I’m not talking about the play-calling and things like that though. I’m moreso focusing on how the position groups currently set up. You’ve got a deep stable of running backs, a volume runner at QB and a blend of veterans and young talent in the receiver rotation.

Let’s dive further, shall we?

Deep stable of runners

2017: Damien Harris, Bo Scarbrough, Josh Jacobs, Najee Harris, Brian Robinson

2023: Jase McClellan, Roydell Williams, Jam Miller, Justice Haynes, Richard Young

McClellan’s current situation is similar to the situation Damien found himself in prior to the 2018 season. Granted, the latter had already been Alabama’s lead back for two years and was coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard performances, but a lot of people felt Jacobs was a better overall player. After speculation that he could leave early for the NFL draft, Damien chose to return for his senior year instead.

The Kentucky native wasn’t viewed as a liability either.

Whether it was as a runner, receiver or pass protector, there wasn’t much drop-off between what he provided Alabama’s backfield compared to others. If you’re Saban, you want to reward a player for choosing to return. You certainly don’t want a guy to come back and then hurt his draft stock by not playing as much. Allowing that situation to unfold could deter others from making a similar decision in the future. So Saban and company rewarded him — and rightfully so.

Damien ended up starting 14 games and led the running backs in touches (172).

With that said, I’m actually comparing the 2023 group to 2017, not 2018. I just thought it was a situation worth bringing up because it’s somewhat similar to the situation McClellan finds himself in currently. The senior is good enough in all facets to warrant being on the field. So as long as he doesn’t suddenly become a hindrance in some way, you might see him get the Damien treatment, even if there are slightly better options at the position.

I will be curious to see how a potential first-year standout such as Haynes is handled compared to Najee’s first season in Tuscaloosa. You could argue that Haynes is showing earlier signs of being an immediate contributor, but I think we can all agree that Najee was ready for a more meaningful workload long before that 2018 national title matchup against Georgia.

Soon after he wrapped up his freshman season, there were growing concerns that Najee might choose to leave Tuscaloosa. In fact, that could be why he saw more significant action against the Bulldogs (a similar situation to Derrick Henry in the 2013 Sugar Bowl, perhaps). There’s at least one difference between Najee and Haynes though… their hometowns.

Najee was a California kid who, as a freshman, was adjusting to Alabama.

The culture and weather in this state are vastly different than he was used to out West. Haynes, on the other hand, hails from nearby Georgia, so that shouldn’t be an issue with him. Still, I wonder if the coaching staff will choose to take a different route in how quickly — and to what degree — it gets Haynes on the field compared to Najee. Getting back to the point here though.

In total, there were four running backs who contributed in that 2017 season.

You can make an argument that it was three since Najee mostly played in blowouts until late in the year, but during the Saban era, there have only been two season where four running backs got 60 or more touches: 2017 and 2018. Some felt — for at least the second half of the year — the more talented running backs (Jacobs and Najee) were the guys who finished as a distant third and fourth in RB touches for 2017, too.

Will that be the case with Haynes and Miller? Either way, there’s no denying the depth in this room.

Even a player such as Young, who’s only been on campus a few weeks, is capable of being an early contributor. Really, it’s just about determining how the touches will be distributed. I really like the balance of this group though. There could be some limitations, but for the most part, all five guys have three-down ability. That helps Alabama avoid tipping its hand based on the personnel at the position.

Dual-threat QB eats into RB touches

2017: Jalen Hurts

2023: Jalen Milroe

A lot of people try to draw comparisons between Hurts and Milroe. The two share a first name, they both wore the No. 2 for Alabama at one point and they’re both power runners who can handle volume. There are also similarities between the limitations Hurts once had as a passer compared to what we’ve seen from Milroe. There is one key difference that I’ve noticed between them though: the turnovers.

We don’t talk about that enough.

Through all of his faults, Hurts had fixed any turnover problems by his second season. After committing 14 turnovers (nine interceptions, five lost fumbles) as a freshman in 2016, he cut that down to just three (one interception, two lost fumbles) in 2017. Now on the flip side, you can also argue that Hurts limiting his turnovers reached a point where it was negatively affecting Alabama’s offense.

Why? Well, sometimes limited turnovers can also lead to limited offense.

Hurts was timid throwing the football in 2017. Too timid. It even got to a point where there were receivers open and he still wouldn’t attempt the throw. He was too worried about making a mistake, maybe because he had five-star freshman Tua Tagovailoa breathing down his neck. Either way, his timidness caught up to Alabama late in the season, which is why Saban had to make a change in the championship game.

That 2017 squad did manage to win a lot of contests though.

A lot of that success is due to Hurts avoiding the things that would get Alabama beat. He wasn’t the one winning a lot of games necessarily, but he was ensuring that other aspects of the roster could step up and seal and deal. Milroe still hasn’t reached that point in his career. He doesn’t need to get as timid as we saw Hurts in 2017, but he needs to be a lot more calculated in his decision-making.

We also need to talk about how volume runners at quarterback can impact your running backs.

For two straight seasons (2016-17), Hurts led Alabama in carries. He totaled 191 as a freshman and 154 as a sophomore. That comes out to an average of 11.9 per game. Milroe carried the ball 23 times in seven quarters as the “starter,” which averages out to over 13 per game. There’s no way around it. Having that type of skill set on the field is going to take up a chunk of your offense.

Those players affect the workload of your running backs and pass-catchers.

There are only so many designed carries or plays in a game, right?

The more carries that go to your quarterback, the less carries there are for your running backs. And the more your quarterback calls his own number on unscripted runs — which come on plays that were originally supposed to be passes — the fewer opportunities are available for your weapons in the passing game. That’s why only two running backs saw more than 100 carries and only one receiver saw more than 26 targets in 2017.

Just look at the number of targets per game for Alabama in each of the last nine season:

2014: 30.6 targets2015: 282016: 25.32017: 21.32018: 27.92019: 302020: 31.22021: 35.22022: 30.7

Hurts was the starter in 2016 and 2017.

So the pass-catchers don’t get as many targets and the running backs don’t get as many carries. That’s not always a bad thing, but Nick Saban loves the talent surrounding his quarterbacks this year. Those are the players you want to lean on in 2023, especially with uncertainty at the quarterback position. He doesn’t want his signal-callers calling their own numbers too much.

Now don’t get it twisted here, Milroe isn’t the only “volume” runner on the roster. Tyler Buchner broke double-digit carries in each three of his starts for Notre Dame in 2022, and Ty Simpson brings mobility to the position as well. In fact, all five of Alabama’s quarterbacks can make plays with their legs, but not to the degree of Milroe. His presence in the lineup would make this position a lot more comparable to 2017 than any of the other guys.

Vets vs. young talent at WR

2017: Calvin Ridley, Cam Sims, Robert Foster, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, DeVonta Smith

2023: Malik Benson, Ja’Corey Brooks, Jermaine Burton, Kendrick Law, Isaiah Bond, Kobe Prentice

No, Alabama’s 2023 wide receiver room isn’t identical to 2017. That year, the Crimson Tide fielded an impressive trio of freshmen who were ready to contribute from the jump. In some ways, the 2017 group actually shares more similarities to 2022, but there’s a reason I’m still comparing it to this upcoming crop of guys.

If you recall, there was a slow transition from the veterans to the young talent in 2017.

Obviously, the staple of the group was Ridley. He played 731 snaps on offense while the second-highest receiver didn’t even break 500. There’s a reason for that discrepancy, too. Through the first month, Foster was averaging a healthy 43 snaps per game. Sims and his 36 snaps per game wasn’t far behind either. Once Alabama got deep into SEC play though, you began to see a change.

Foster saw his snaps drop to 33 per game. Sims also saw close to a double-digit decrease, going from 36 to 26.9. From a snap count perspective, Ruggs wasn’t a beneficiary of those decreases, but he did see a slight increase in target share. Jeudy and Smith got slight bumps in target share too, but the biggest differences were the snap counts.

Jeudy saw a 10-snap increase (21 to 31) over the final 10 games while Smith’s average went from 23.3 to 29.6. In other words, you saw a slow, steady transition to the younger, more talented playmakers. You might see something similar in 2023, but it’ll just be with true sophomores rather than true freshmen like you saw in 2017.

Now I should note that Benson isn’t Ridley… yet.

He’s certainly got similar upside, but Ridley was already established in Tuscaloosa. Benson is a five-star JUCO guy who’s done it on the college level but not the SEC. I still think he is going to be a featured piece early in the year and will continue to hold that role throughout the entire the season. Between that and the Day 1 talent, there are at least some parallels to Ridley.

Some people might want to compare Brooks to Ridley instead. I don’t think that’s an absurd take considering his history in the lineup, but I can also see Brooks being a better version of Foster or Sims from 2017. Brooks will be a consistent part of the rotation, but will he be a featured piece? If that’s going to happen, he’ll need to make a significant jump.

Burton is the easy one to compare to Foster and Sims though.

He’s a senior who will either be a starter or heavy rotational guy early on, but will he maintain his heavy role for the entire season? I think it’s a lot more likely that players such as Law, Bond and Prentice slowly begin to eat into his snap and target shares. Those three guys showed flashes as freshmen, and now they are ready to play with more consistency.

The comparisons between the 2017 group of wide receivers and the current crop don’t line up perfectly, but I do think you will see a shift from one, maybe even two of the veterans to some of the younger guys with more explosiveness and upside. From there, the target opportunities will be based on how similar the quarterback and running back groups are to 2017.

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