We're going to make this our final portal post because we've got a full pre-spring roster discussion coming in the next few days that's going to make these sort of redundant. In addition, portal action has slowed down now to the point that adding a name every few weeks will be tedious. Overall, we're probably down to the point where Alabama will only be adding depth pieces to fill out the roster going forward, anyway. All sections have been rewritten with new notes and content for this update.
Here we go ...
QB (6): Austin Mack, Keelon Russell, Jett Thomalla, Tayden Kaawa, John Gazzaniga (WO), John Cooper (WO)
Take: No needs here. Alabama has focused on HS QB recruiting under DeBoer and that doesn't appear likely to change.
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RB: (8): Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley, Akylin Dear, Ezavier Crowell, Traeshawn Brown, Khalifa Keith, Jessie Washington (WO), Fredrick Moore (WO)
Take: Once Miami's Gerald Pringle Jr. decided to exit the portal, it appears Alabama didn't believe it could add a running back with substantially better ability than either A.K. Dear or Ezavier Crowell. The most recent portal addition is former Appalachian State and Tennessee RB Khalifa Keith, who goes about 6'1", 235 but has limited production in three years of work so far. Keith's addition says "roster fill" to us for a couple of reasons, one being the production and the second, probably most-relevant reason being that every running back Alabama had courted in the transfer portal up to this point had been around 5'11", 180. We believe Alabama was looking for an upgrade to Kevin Riley when it went after Pringle and most notably NC State's Hollywood Smothers, but when those names fell off the board, we believe Alabama pivoted to a position of keeping and developing Riley in that scatback role and adding depth. Overspending is a reality in roster management and Keith probably isn't going to cost much on the balance sheet. Meanwhile, true freshman Traeshawn Brown's chances of making an impact in his first year probably went up. Like is true for all position groups with walkons that carried over from 2025, we'll have to see if Jessie Washington or Fredrick Moore are even part of the program going forward. Washington made it into a couple of games on special teams last year.
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WR: (11): Ryan Williams, Noah Rogers, Rico Scott, Lotzeir Brooks, Derek Meadows, Cederian Morgan, M.J. Chirgwin, Maurice Mathis Jr., Aubrey Walker, Ben Jackson (WO), Cooper Mollison (WO)
Take: As with running back, once Alabama's final primary target (Nico Brown) opted to go to Stanford, Alabama audibled a bit and added freshmen Aubrey Walker and Maurice Mathis Jr. and brought back M.J. Chirgwin, who will now be on scholarship. We still would like to see a receiver added to this group, because there's a pretty clear line of demarcation between the top six guys and the other five. Teams really need seven quality WRs at the start of the season, if not eight. We'll talk about the back five first: Chirgwin has a bit more bulk to his frame and route skills than you typically get in a walkon, and it's very likely he goes into the season as the No. 7 guy. If his hands continue to develop, he's a guy Bama can get some snaps from in the slot. He's a bigger Cole Adams but Adams was more athletic, although not by a massive gap. Mathis has some nice tape and it would seem injuries are the reason he didn't get more notice in high school; he's certainly worth a take as a project guy, especially since he may not be done growing yet and is already a 6'1" receiver with outside WR skills. Walker is a miniature Lotzeir Brooks, and given that Brooks is already "miniature" himself, it may be more fair to call Walker a bigger version of another Brooks -- Brandon Brooks. We've recalled the stories here several times of how Mike Price appeared to have crafted a set of plays to showcase Brooks prior to his untimely dismissal before the 2003 season; if Walker rises to that level, then this was a good take for depth as well. For the walkons, we didn't see Cooper Mollison last year but Ben Jackson did get some snaps. He appears to be quick but very slim/small. Moving up to the top six, we expect Noah Rogers to take Isaiah Horton's spot with Ryan Williams and Lotzeir Brooks the other two starters. Rico Scott will continue to have a role especially on screens and running downs. We hope Derek Meadows is able to hit the restart button after the hard hit at Missouri seemed to trip the breaker on his 2025 season. The name all the recruitniks are watching is Cederian Morgan, who will challenge Rogers and Brooks for a starting spot.
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TE: (9): Danny Lewis Jr., Josh Ford, Jay Lindsey, Jack Sammarco, Kaleb Edwards, Marshall Pritchett, Mack Sutter, Peyton Fox (WO), Jaxon Shuttlesworth (WO)
Take: Josh Ford was Bama's first signee out of the portal for 2026 and profiles as nearly a copy of Danny Lewis Jr., which more or less means Alabama has a bunch of Y-tight ends on the depth chart and not many true H-tight ends. There has been speculation as to whether RB Khalifa Keith may be getting signed as a fullback, in which case he'll get added to this group instead. Kaleb Edwards' true freshman season started with a lot of promise but leveled out as the year went along, while Marshall Pritchett had a spotty debut all around. Getting Ford likely allows Alabama to slow the development wheel for both, assuming Lewis can stay healthy. Jay Lindsey is a depth piece, and former West Virginia transfer Jack Sammarco probably is as well; Sammarco has to show development as a receiver in order to get snaps. True freshman Mack Sutter should get ample time to develop, while walkons Peyton Fox and Jaxon Shuttlesworth both offer enough roster depth to keep the Tide out of complete disaster. We'll touch on the Y/H differences in the upcoming article.
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OL: (23): Michael Carroll, Tyrell Miller, Kaden Strayhorn, Will Sanders, Jackson Lloyd, Ty Haywood, Nick Brooks, Racin Delgatty, Ethan Fields, Jayvin James, Bryson Cooley, Casey Poe, Mal Waldrep, Chris Booker, Bear Fretwell, Jared Doughty, Mac Smith (WO), Billy Roby (WO), Davis Peterson (WO), Baker Hickman (WO), Wade Estess (WO), Jamison Travis (WO), J.D. Martin (WO)
Take: Due to the size of this group we're going to wait to really get down into the weeds until the upcoming roster article, but the overarching point is we feel Alabama fixed whatever talent issue was present here through recruiting and the portal. Now it's time to show up.
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DL: (21): Yhonzae Pierre, Jah-Marien Latham, Jeremiah Beaman,Terrance Green, London Simmons, Devan Thompkins, Justin Hill, Edric Hill, Kedrick Bingley-Jones, Desmond Umeozulu, Caleb Smith, Zay Hall, Isaia Faga, Steve Mboumoua, Fatutoa Henry, Nolan Wilson, Malique Franklin, Kamhariyan Johnson, Jamarion Matthews, Corey Howard, Lane Whisenhunt (WO)
Take: Like offensive line, there are just too many names here to do justice in a forum post, but we need to salute DE Jah-Marien Latham for coming back for a seventh year. He lost his 2025 season at the start due to a neck injury. He's listed as a Wolf LB on Alabama's roster, which means he went from a nosetackle prospect under Nick Saban to a defensive end to a Bandit to a Wolf. If he gets 2-3 more years eligibility, he could shrink to a slot receiver, we suppose. In all seriousness, a lot of whether Alabama can consider itself "rebuilt" here depends on whether Kedrick Bingley-Jones wins his appeal for another season. If he does, Alabama will have the interior beef it needs; if he doesn't, this will be 2025 in redux. Like the OL, there's a lot of "prove it" that needs to happen here.
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LB: (10): Q.B. Reese. Caleb Woodson, Cayden Jones, Abduall Sanders Jr., Darrell Johnson, Luke Metz, Xavier Griffin, Grant Johnson (WO), Jake Ivie (WO), Aiden Moore (WO)
Take: Alabama took Caleb Woodson out of the portal and had several chances to take other players, but ultimately decided to go with its younger, in-house talent. There's one other name we're watching here, West Florida's Ja'Kobe Clinton, the brother of former Alabama star Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, and if Alabama takes him we think Clinton could wind up being the last player of note to come from the portal this cycle for UA. We've also been told within the last week or so that Xavier Griffin may get his first look at Wolf linebacker rather than inside. We have been high on Alabama's young ILB talent for awhile, and expect Woodson to start at one of the ILB spots with some combination of Cayden Jones, Q.B. Reese and Luke Metz at the other. Both Darrell Johnson and Abduall Sanders are right there, too, and walk-on Grant Johnson also has some ability.
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DB: (24): Dijon Lee Jr., Bray Hubbard, Rydarrius Morgan, Keon Sabb, Zabien Brown, Nick Sherman, Zavier Mincey, Carmelo O'Neal, Ivan Taylor, Chuck McDonald, Jordan Edmonds, Rihyael Kelley, Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., Jireh Edwards, Zyan Gibson, Kolby Peavy (WO), London Hill (WO), Walter Sansing (WO), Conner Warhurst (WO), Ty Roper (WO), Cole Davis (WO), Brody McCutcheon (WO), Griffin Hanson (WO), Kyle Clayton (WO)
Take: Between an entire team of true freshmen, the return of Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., the decisions by Bray Hubbard and Keon Sabb to forego early entry into the NFL Draft, and the addition of S Carmelo O'Neal from the portal, there's no reason not to be sky-high about the potential of this unit again. The secondary has been a strength of the team for two years running and we see no reason to think otherwise in 2026.
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ST: (8): PK Conor Talty, PK Tucker Cornelius (WO), PK Lorcan Quinn, P Adam Watford, P Alex Asparuhov, P Anderson Green (WO), LS Ethan Stangle, LS Jay Williams (WO)
Take: We didn't expect Alabama to take a new kicker (Lorcan Quinn) and punter (Adam Watford), but the Tide did. It will be interesting to watch the placekicker battle this spring, as well as to see if Syracuse's Ethan Stangle can help bring stability to a long-snapper position that was in constant flux in 2025.
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Has taken already/total to take:
QB: 0/0
RB: 1/1
WR: 3/3
TE: 2/2
OL: 6/6
DL: 5/5
ILB: 1/1
DB: 1/1
ST: 3/3
TOTAL: 21/21
Roster Size Total as of 2/1: 118/105
Here we go ...
QB (6): Austin Mack, Keelon Russell, Jett Thomalla, Tayden Kaawa, John Gazzaniga (WO), John Cooper (WO)
Take: No needs here. Alabama has focused on HS QB recruiting under DeBoer and that doesn't appear likely to change.
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RB: (8): Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley, Akylin Dear, Ezavier Crowell, Traeshawn Brown, Khalifa Keith, Jessie Washington (WO), Fredrick Moore (WO)
Take: Once Miami's Gerald Pringle Jr. decided to exit the portal, it appears Alabama didn't believe it could add a running back with substantially better ability than either A.K. Dear or Ezavier Crowell. The most recent portal addition is former Appalachian State and Tennessee RB Khalifa Keith, who goes about 6'1", 235 but has limited production in three years of work so far. Keith's addition says "roster fill" to us for a couple of reasons, one being the production and the second, probably most-relevant reason being that every running back Alabama had courted in the transfer portal up to this point had been around 5'11", 180. We believe Alabama was looking for an upgrade to Kevin Riley when it went after Pringle and most notably NC State's Hollywood Smothers, but when those names fell off the board, we believe Alabama pivoted to a position of keeping and developing Riley in that scatback role and adding depth. Overspending is a reality in roster management and Keith probably isn't going to cost much on the balance sheet. Meanwhile, true freshman Traeshawn Brown's chances of making an impact in his first year probably went up. Like is true for all position groups with walkons that carried over from 2025, we'll have to see if Jessie Washington or Fredrick Moore are even part of the program going forward. Washington made it into a couple of games on special teams last year.
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WR: (11): Ryan Williams, Noah Rogers, Rico Scott, Lotzeir Brooks, Derek Meadows, Cederian Morgan, M.J. Chirgwin, Maurice Mathis Jr., Aubrey Walker, Ben Jackson (WO), Cooper Mollison (WO)
Take: As with running back, once Alabama's final primary target (Nico Brown) opted to go to Stanford, Alabama audibled a bit and added freshmen Aubrey Walker and Maurice Mathis Jr. and brought back M.J. Chirgwin, who will now be on scholarship. We still would like to see a receiver added to this group, because there's a pretty clear line of demarcation between the top six guys and the other five. Teams really need seven quality WRs at the start of the season, if not eight. We'll talk about the back five first: Chirgwin has a bit more bulk to his frame and route skills than you typically get in a walkon, and it's very likely he goes into the season as the No. 7 guy. If his hands continue to develop, he's a guy Bama can get some snaps from in the slot. He's a bigger Cole Adams but Adams was more athletic, although not by a massive gap. Mathis has some nice tape and it would seem injuries are the reason he didn't get more notice in high school; he's certainly worth a take as a project guy, especially since he may not be done growing yet and is already a 6'1" receiver with outside WR skills. Walker is a miniature Lotzeir Brooks, and given that Brooks is already "miniature" himself, it may be more fair to call Walker a bigger version of another Brooks -- Brandon Brooks. We've recalled the stories here several times of how Mike Price appeared to have crafted a set of plays to showcase Brooks prior to his untimely dismissal before the 2003 season; if Walker rises to that level, then this was a good take for depth as well. For the walkons, we didn't see Cooper Mollison last year but Ben Jackson did get some snaps. He appears to be quick but very slim/small. Moving up to the top six, we expect Noah Rogers to take Isaiah Horton's spot with Ryan Williams and Lotzeir Brooks the other two starters. Rico Scott will continue to have a role especially on screens and running downs. We hope Derek Meadows is able to hit the restart button after the hard hit at Missouri seemed to trip the breaker on his 2025 season. The name all the recruitniks are watching is Cederian Morgan, who will challenge Rogers and Brooks for a starting spot.
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TE: (9): Danny Lewis Jr., Josh Ford, Jay Lindsey, Jack Sammarco, Kaleb Edwards, Marshall Pritchett, Mack Sutter, Peyton Fox (WO), Jaxon Shuttlesworth (WO)
Take: Josh Ford was Bama's first signee out of the portal for 2026 and profiles as nearly a copy of Danny Lewis Jr., which more or less means Alabama has a bunch of Y-tight ends on the depth chart and not many true H-tight ends. There has been speculation as to whether RB Khalifa Keith may be getting signed as a fullback, in which case he'll get added to this group instead. Kaleb Edwards' true freshman season started with a lot of promise but leveled out as the year went along, while Marshall Pritchett had a spotty debut all around. Getting Ford likely allows Alabama to slow the development wheel for both, assuming Lewis can stay healthy. Jay Lindsey is a depth piece, and former West Virginia transfer Jack Sammarco probably is as well; Sammarco has to show development as a receiver in order to get snaps. True freshman Mack Sutter should get ample time to develop, while walkons Peyton Fox and Jaxon Shuttlesworth both offer enough roster depth to keep the Tide out of complete disaster. We'll touch on the Y/H differences in the upcoming article.
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OL: (23): Michael Carroll, Tyrell Miller, Kaden Strayhorn, Will Sanders, Jackson Lloyd, Ty Haywood, Nick Brooks, Racin Delgatty, Ethan Fields, Jayvin James, Bryson Cooley, Casey Poe, Mal Waldrep, Chris Booker, Bear Fretwell, Jared Doughty, Mac Smith (WO), Billy Roby (WO), Davis Peterson (WO), Baker Hickman (WO), Wade Estess (WO), Jamison Travis (WO), J.D. Martin (WO)
Take: Due to the size of this group we're going to wait to really get down into the weeds until the upcoming roster article, but the overarching point is we feel Alabama fixed whatever talent issue was present here through recruiting and the portal. Now it's time to show up.
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DL: (21): Yhonzae Pierre, Jah-Marien Latham, Jeremiah Beaman,Terrance Green, London Simmons, Devan Thompkins, Justin Hill, Edric Hill, Kedrick Bingley-Jones, Desmond Umeozulu, Caleb Smith, Zay Hall, Isaia Faga, Steve Mboumoua, Fatutoa Henry, Nolan Wilson, Malique Franklin, Kamhariyan Johnson, Jamarion Matthews, Corey Howard, Lane Whisenhunt (WO)
Take: Like offensive line, there are just too many names here to do justice in a forum post, but we need to salute DE Jah-Marien Latham for coming back for a seventh year. He lost his 2025 season at the start due to a neck injury. He's listed as a Wolf LB on Alabama's roster, which means he went from a nosetackle prospect under Nick Saban to a defensive end to a Bandit to a Wolf. If he gets 2-3 more years eligibility, he could shrink to a slot receiver, we suppose. In all seriousness, a lot of whether Alabama can consider itself "rebuilt" here depends on whether Kedrick Bingley-Jones wins his appeal for another season. If he does, Alabama will have the interior beef it needs; if he doesn't, this will be 2025 in redux. Like the OL, there's a lot of "prove it" that needs to happen here.
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LB: (10): Q.B. Reese. Caleb Woodson, Cayden Jones, Abduall Sanders Jr., Darrell Johnson, Luke Metz, Xavier Griffin, Grant Johnson (WO), Jake Ivie (WO), Aiden Moore (WO)
Take: Alabama took Caleb Woodson out of the portal and had several chances to take other players, but ultimately decided to go with its younger, in-house talent. There's one other name we're watching here, West Florida's Ja'Kobe Clinton, the brother of former Alabama star Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, and if Alabama takes him we think Clinton could wind up being the last player of note to come from the portal this cycle for UA. We've also been told within the last week or so that Xavier Griffin may get his first look at Wolf linebacker rather than inside. We have been high on Alabama's young ILB talent for awhile, and expect Woodson to start at one of the ILB spots with some combination of Cayden Jones, Q.B. Reese and Luke Metz at the other. Both Darrell Johnson and Abduall Sanders are right there, too, and walk-on Grant Johnson also has some ability.
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DB: (24): Dijon Lee Jr., Bray Hubbard, Rydarrius Morgan, Keon Sabb, Zabien Brown, Nick Sherman, Zavier Mincey, Carmelo O'Neal, Ivan Taylor, Chuck McDonald, Jordan Edmonds, Rihyael Kelley, Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., Jireh Edwards, Zyan Gibson, Kolby Peavy (WO), London Hill (WO), Walter Sansing (WO), Conner Warhurst (WO), Ty Roper (WO), Cole Davis (WO), Brody McCutcheon (WO), Griffin Hanson (WO), Kyle Clayton (WO)
Take: Between an entire team of true freshmen, the return of Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., the decisions by Bray Hubbard and Keon Sabb to forego early entry into the NFL Draft, and the addition of S Carmelo O'Neal from the portal, there's no reason not to be sky-high about the potential of this unit again. The secondary has been a strength of the team for two years running and we see no reason to think otherwise in 2026.
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ST: (8): PK Conor Talty, PK Tucker Cornelius (WO), PK Lorcan Quinn, P Adam Watford, P Alex Asparuhov, P Anderson Green (WO), LS Ethan Stangle, LS Jay Williams (WO)
Take: We didn't expect Alabama to take a new kicker (Lorcan Quinn) and punter (Adam Watford), but the Tide did. It will be interesting to watch the placekicker battle this spring, as well as to see if Syracuse's Ethan Stangle can help bring stability to a long-snapper position that was in constant flux in 2025.
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Has taken already/total to take:
QB: 0/0
RB: 1/1
WR: 3/3
TE: 2/2
OL: 6/6
DL: 5/5
ILB: 1/1
DB: 1/1
ST: 3/3
TOTAL: 21/21
Roster Size Total as of 2/1: 118/105
