Predicting the next great wide receiver in Kalen DeBoer's offense at Alabama

Kalen DeBoer had arguably the top group of receivers in the country last season at Washington. Now that he’s at Alabama, it’s fair to assume the Crimson Tide will have some elite pass catchers, too.

Tim Watts of BamaOnLine joined On3’s Andy Staples recently to break down who might be the next great receiver in Kalen DeBoer’s offense.

According to Watts, it could be a wideout who followed DeBoer from Washington to Alabama.

“I think it can be Germie Bernard, oddly enough,” Tim Watts said. “When Isaiah Bond left, hit the portal, went to Texas, when Germie Bernard came, I talked to several people who said that’s not a downgrade; it’s possibly an upgrade. Now he, again, (was) behind three guys that are going to go in the first three rounds, probably, of the NFL draft. So he had three wide receivers ahead of him.”

Germie Bernard finished fifth on the Washington team last season with 34 catches for 419 yards and two touchdowns. He played in 14 of 15 games, making seven starts.

Considering that Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan were the three receivers in front of him, it’s fair to assume that Bernard would have started at most anywhere else in the country. Bernard certainly looked like an elite receiver in the Alabama spring game, catching three passes for 122 yards.

“You saw what he did in the spring game,” Watts said. “He’s got that look of Wide Receiver 1. He’s fast, he knows the system. Made big plays in that game. So he’s the guy, I think, right out of the gate that you have to look for.”

While Bernard is the most likely top receiver for Alabama, there are plenty of other talented guys, too. The group as a whole has a chance to be really good this fall and should only get better in the years to come.

“Caleb Odom, a true freshman, is a guy you hear a lot of people talking about, as well. So I think the way they spread the ball around, you’re going to see other guys emerge,” Watts said. “Kobe Prentice is a guy that could emerge. It’s too bad about the injury to [Jalen] Hale. He was a guy that had a chance.

“But they’re going to have guys to spread it around to. Probably not as good a wide receiver room as they had at Washington last year, but I think they’re working on fixing that.”