Alabama must add offensive line, defensive back depth in transfer portal, per Greg McElroy

The Alabama football program still has plenty of talent, despite losing multiple key players to the transfer portal after Nick Saban retired in January.

With that said, there is still room for improvement, according to former Alabama quarterback and current ESPN analyst Greg McElroy.

McElroy recently spoke on the Always College Football podcast about which positions Bama should target players in the transfer portal.

“Alabama… the two positions are very obvious. Alabama needs to add pieces along the offensive line,” McElroy said. “Kadyn Proctor is en route back to Alabama from Iowa. … But I think adding depth to that position would be incredibly valuable. You don’t want to be young along the offensive line. Now can you get by? Sure, if you’ve got great talent. But you better be surrounded by some veteran guys.

“So I think it’d be very valuable for Alabama to add some key pieces to the offensive line, whether it’s in a depth role or a starting role, that would be significant.”

The other position Kalen DeBoer‘s program should look to add talent is on the defensive side of the ball, per McElroy.

“Then the other position where I would think Bama would probably target would be in the defensive backfield,” McElroy said. “Now they already added Keon Sabb, who transferred down from Michigan to play one of the safety spots. We know they’re going to have some quality pieces on the back end. They already added Domani Jackson from USC, who’s likely to lock down one of the corner spots.

“The other positions are right now not much of a question mark, because right now Malachi Moore will occupy one of those spots, it’s just a matter of which one. I would expect it to be safety. And then you look at the Husky position, which is new in Kane Wommack’s defense. Who’s going to occupy that spot? If the season started tomorrow, it might be a true freshman.”

Alabama signed several true freshmen who are talented for the class of 2024, but McElroy warned that if the Crimson Tide do go with freshmen in key roles, they better be prepared for some growing pains.

He believes that bringing in more veterans would be beneficial.

“At the other corner spot there’s three true freshmen who are vying for playing time at that position. A couple of them are big-time recruits, like [Jaylen] Mbakwe and Zabien Brown and [Zay] Mincey. All of those guys are very talented, but they’re young. And any time you go with a true freshman on the perimeter against grown men at wide receiver, there’s going to be growing pains,” McElroy said.

“I saw Dee Milliner in 2010 start as a true freshman. Had a great year by all accounts, but there was a game or two in which he had challenges going against an Alshon Jeffery, who was bigger and more physically dominant at that point of his career. So expect Alabama to target offensive line, potentially an off-the-ball linebacker, just for depth purposes, and then some veteran competition in the backend, I think, would be very, very valuable.”

The good news for Alabama is that they have already addressed some of the needs McElroy mentioned.

In recent weeks, the Crimson Tide have picked up commitments from former Michigan State offensive lineman Geno VanDeMark, former Penn State safety King Mack, former Wake Forest cornerback DaShawn Jones and former Charlotte defensive back Kameron Howard.