Alabama will likely be without OLB Drew Sanders for Texas A&M game
Alabama has already taken one hit at outside linebacker after Christopher Allen was lost due to a foot injury against Miami. Now, the Crimson Tide will likely be without Allen’s replacement, Drew Sanders — or at least they will for this weekend’s game against Texas A&M.
During the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday, Alabama coach Nick Saban revealed that Sanders is unlikely to play this weekend due to an injury.
“We’ve got a couple guys beat up,” Saban told reporters. “Drew Sanders is probably gonna be out for this game, and of course, everybody knows about Jase (McClellan). We’re just trying to get the guys ready to go.”
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According to Saban, it’s a hand injury that will keep Sanders out.
“He has a hand injury,” Saban said. “It required surgery. It was a little, maybe, worse than we thought. So he’s gonna be game-to-game for a few weeks, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
With Sanders now joining Allen on the sidelines for Week 6, who will step into the starting role opposite Will Anderson? From what we know, two guys will be asked to fill that void, Chris Braswell and freshman Dallas Turner.
“They don’t have a lot of experience,” Saban said. “That’s two starters at the same position that we’ve lost. But Dallas Turner is a good young player, and he’s probably gonna get more opportunity, as well as Chris Braswell, at that position, and those guys have played some. But they’re obviously gonna get more opportunity now.”
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Out of a possible 325 snaps so far this season, Braswell has been on the field for 78 of them with Turner playing 53. That being said, Turner has been slowly trending towards more playing time for a while now.
Against Ole Miss this past Saturday, the five-star pass rusher saw six snaps. For comparison, Braswell only saw three.
However it shakes out, both players will be asked to play more snaps until Sanders is able to return. Getting further into your depth is always cause for concern, but it could be dividends down the road once Alabama gets closer to full strength.
Sanders will be missed against A&M on Saturday though. He’s been a huge factor to the defense’s success since stepping in for Allen, even earning recent praise from Saban.
“He’s really done a good job. He plays the run really well, he’s a good pass rusher,” Saban said of Sanders. “The pass-drop stuff is something that we’re continuing to work on him with, and he’s getting better and better at that. So, to play him and Will [Anderson] at outside backer allows us to do a lot of different things. We’re getting a little thin at outside backer relative to injuries, so we’ll see if we can continue to do that.”
Kickoff time for Saturday is set at 7 p.m. CT (6 p.m. ET) and will air on CBS. Alabama is currently a 17.5-point favorite, according to VegasInsider.com. It will be interesting to see if that line moves any with this news about Sanders.
