JessN: 2025 Roster Rundown: Linebackers

[JessN]

2025 Roster Rundown: Linebackers

This week, our 2025 Alabama Preview continues with a look at the linebacker group. As stated in previous articles in this series, in recent years, we’ve waited until fall camp began to take a…

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[OakMtn4Bama]

Need to stay healthy

 

[TRU]

So if I convert the grades Jess is giving to letter grades, we have a bunch of Bs and a couple of Cs. Not good enough to make the honor roll, much less be valedictorian. But it occurred to me that we do not what the cohort Jess is using to grade against. If Jess is using all D1 teams the grades suggest a pretty abysmal season. If he is using the SEC, this means Alabama might end up 8-4 and in the top third of all SEC schools. IOW, right there with Auburn. But if he is measuring this team against those of the Saban era, we can get excited. So Jess, what is the cohort you are grading against?

 

[arthurdawg]

Hopefully against Saban. And it is now likely impossible to have such deeply talented teams.

 

[JessN]

So if I convert the grades Jess is giving to letter grades, we have a bunch of Bs and a couple of Cs. Not good enough to make the honor roll, much less be valedictorian. But it occurred to me that we do not what the cohort Jess is using to grade against. If Jess is using all D1 teams the grades suggest a pretty abysmal season. If he is using the SEC, this means Alabama might end up 8-4 and in the top third of all SEC schools. IOW, right there with Auburn. But if he is measuring this team against those of the Saban era, we can get excited. So Jess, what is the cohort you are grading against?

A good question ... I tend to give out "Ex" very, very rarely. Same as if I were doing it the modern way with tiers and was working with S-A-B-C-D tier ... I give out very few Ss. I also tend to give out very few "Poors/Pr" or D-tier at this level. It's a bell curve with all schools considered, not just SEC vs. SEC.

 

[JDCrimson]

So are you saying we are going to be 8-4?

A good question ... I tend to give out "Ex" very, very rarely. Same as if I were doing it the modern way with tiers and was working with S-A-B-C-D tier ... I give out very few Ss. I also tend to give out very few "Poors/Pr" or D-tier at this level. It's a bell curve with all schools considered, not just SEC vs. SEC.

 

[JessN]

So are you saying we are going to be 8-4?

No, because that doesn't take into account where other teams on our schedule rank, either. If you're a longtime reader of our fall preview stuff, you'll recount several years where the entire conference has been light on a category or two, and then in other years, it's hard to find anyone who ranks below average in a particular category. You kind of have to wait until you can get it all onto paper and see how people compare to one another.

I feel OK about doing that for Alabama right now but I won't do much with the other schools until their fall camp rosters solidify. That's an unfortunate side effect of modern roster management. When we started this way back in 1997, I could pretty much preview a team back in May and what I'd write would hold up into September.

Right now, Bama looks like this:

QB: Vg (and trending up possibly to Ex)
RB: Av
WR: Vg (and could very easily rise to Ex if the tight end position solidifies)
OL: Vg
DL: Av (trending upward toward Vg but we'll have to see about DT depth first)
LB: Vg (another possible Ex depending on Wolf LB)
DB: Ex
ST: Av

Just off the top of my head that looks a lot more like 10-2 or 11-1 than 8-4.

 

[JDCrimson]

Thanks, Jess. I wasn't trying to get ahead of your fall prediction. Just trying to clarify how to read your position rundowns...