Greg McElroy reveals how Alabama can 'elevate its play' after departures of Bryce Young, Will Anderson

For the last two seasons, Alabama had two of the top talents in college football on both sides of the football. But now that Bryce Young and Will Anderson are off to the NFL as the first two picks in the NFL Draft, someone else will have to step up.

However, former Crimson Tide quarterback and current ESPN analyst Greg McElroy predicted Alabama will be fine after those two departures.

McElroy said now that Young and Anderson are gone, more Crimson Tide players can fill their shoes. He saw some tendencies over the last two seasons that showed just how much the two impacted not only the opposing team’s game plan, but also their own teammates’ mentality. As a result, more players can step up, particularly on offense.

“Here’s what I think about the 2021 and the 2022 version of Alabama. I think a football team is like the human body,” McElroy said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “If you work one specific position or one specific muscle group, you might have atrophy in other areas. And I believe that they put too much — and I don’t know if Coach Saban would necessarily acknowledge this and I don’t think Bill O’Brien would acknowledge this, either. Because you have to play to your strengths, and your strength was your quarterback. But they put so much on him that it’s almost as if the rest of the team looked at Bryce and said, ‘Oh, man, he’ll bail us out. As long as No. 9’s out there, we’re in good shape.’ And he did, several times. Without question.

“But as a result, the rest of the team — not that they became [lax]. But when you have a team that plays hero ball and if that guy, for whatever reason, if he doesn’t bail us out, then we can’t elevate our play. Now, I think everyone else has elevated their play in order to account for the atrophied muscle that is the inexperience at quarterback.”

The offense isn’t the only unit that could benefit from more players emerging as leaders. McElroy named two games in particular where the opposing offensive line shut down Anderson, and Alabama struggled. Remember, he wasn’t much of a factor against Tennessee — a game in which he said he played the toughest offensive lineman he’d ever gone against — and Texas also stymied him pretty well. The Crimson Tide lost to Tennessee and snuck out a victory over Texas.

Without Anderson, though, McElroy thinks Alabama can avoid the “you go, we go” mentality it might’ve had with him on the field.

“I also think the same can be said on defense,” McElroy said. “You think about the games last year, for instance, where Will Anderson didn’t have a take-over-the-game type of approach. Tennessee and Texas, two very close games, two games that he would love to have back. Didn’t play great in those games.

“When you see your hero, if you will, Will Anderson not having an impact on the game, that impacts everyone else subconsciously. ‘Man, if he’s getting locked down, I don’t know if we can do it.’ You know what I mean?”

On the whole, McElroy said he likes what he’s seeing from Alabama this offseason. Not only will the Crimson Tide have new leaders on the field, but both coordinators changed since the 2022 season ended.

That’s why he senses some good vibes around the program.

“I think this is going to be really interesting because this is a team — and maybe I’m drinking the Bama Kool-Aid. I acknowledge it’s a possibility,” McElroy said. “But having been around them, having been in the facility, I love the makeup. I love that collectively, there feels like a buy-in that has been there, but not to this extent. And there feels like a sense of urgency that the sum is going to be greater than maybe each individual part, and that’s what’s been missing maybe the last couple years. That’s what I think could come back here in 2023.”