On3 Roundtable: Alabama's biggest problem at wide receiver revealed

Alabama has a big wide receiver problem, according to Bama Online’s Jimmy Stein. But it’s not as bad as you think, it’s just an intriguing one.

Basically, the Crimson Tide have a lot of talent at the position, but there’s not a standout playmaker out wide for whichever quarterback wins the starting job. Alabama knows its running back depth, but at wide receiver, it’s a little different.

Stein explained the status of the Alabama wide receiver group on the On3 Roundtable.

“It’s so smart to look at the tremendous depth, it’s also a liability as opposed to an asset,” Stein said. “… If you got three pretty good looking quarterbacks for next year … you don’t have one. And that’s probably Alabama’s biggest problem at wide receiver. You got seven but you don’t have one. What we mean by that is the guy we can completely hang our hat on that’s like well, you know, he’s gonna catch eight balls for 100 yards this week. No, we don’t know that. We don’t have that guy yet.”

That’s where Stein rattled off current Alabama wide receivers that could be that guy. But there was a strong emphasis on could, not would.

“It might be (Malik) Benson, it might be a one year improved Ja’Corey Brooks, it might be one of these freshmen,” Stein said. “Kobe Prentice caught like 32 balls last year, Kendrick Law had maybe a breakout spring. We know Isaiah Bond is the fastest guy on the whole football team. So it can be any of them, which is great. And it’s great that there’s a lot of candidates, but it sure would be nice if you had one star that you could count on.”

Running back is a more loaded position for the Crimson Tide. That might be where the offense flows through. But really, Alabama has a lot to figure out before the start of the season.

“Maybe you do at running back with a Justice Haynes or a Jamarion Miller,” Stein said. “And we know Jase McClellan is a good player. Tight end, you got several. You don’t have Brock Bowers, you know, but it’ll be interesting to me. It’s a great point you make about how are we going to have this quarterback, who by the way we have three of those and not one, right? 

“Which quarterback is able to build as much chemistry as possible with four running backs, seven receivers and four tight ends? It’s sort of beautiful because there’s so many good players, but it’s also a little bit of a mess to be honest.”