Greg McElroy previews Alabama's quarterback future with addition of Keelon Russell

Alabama added a quarterback recruit this week after flipping Keelon Russell, a four-star prospect in the class of 2025, from a previous commitment to SMU. Russell’s pledge now sets up a competitive position room beginning in 2025 in Tuscaloosa.

Greg McElroy assessed the Crimson Tide’s quarterbacks for a year from now during ‘Always College Football’ on Thursday. With him removing this year’s starter from the equation, he added up four players who will be battling to be Alabama’s QB1 in 2025.

“I think what’s kind of interesting is you look at the depth chart for Alabama moving forward? Now, Jalen Milroe – let’s just say he has a great year, decides to go to the NFL,” said McElroy. “Next year’s quarterback competition is going to be fierce between Ty Simpson, Dylan Lonergan, the transfer from Washington in Austin Mack, and now you can add in Keelon Russell, a guy that was hand-picked by this staff.”

In that scenario, Simpson, the former No. 2 QB in 2022, would be the most experienced of the quartet. He will be entering his redshirt sophomore year this season after spending the last two at Alabama under Nick Saban. In that time, he has appeared in 10 games and gone 15-25 (60%) for 214 yards as a backup. He also rushed for 86 yards and a pair of touchdowns last season.

Lonergan, a former four-star and Top-15 QB in 2023, would be next in experience in T-Town. He’s coming off his first season with the program where he redshirted after appearing in just one game, which was the penultimate game against Chattanooga, where he completed both of his throws for a dozen yards.

Mack, another former four-star and Top-20 QB from 2023, arrives after beginning his career in Seattle under Kalen DeBoer. He redshirted after making no appearances with the Huskies as part of the same quarterback room as Michael Penix Jr. He then followed DeBoer to Alabama by transferring and committing to the Tide as the No. 18 QB and No. 94 player in the portal, which makes him the seventh-high rated addition by the program, in On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.

Russell joins this collection now after his commitment earlier this week on Tuesday. Per On3’s Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, Russell, a product out of Duncanville, Texas, is the No. 57 overall recruit in 2025. He also rates as the No. 8 QB and No. 11 prospect out of his state.

Russell committed to the Mustangs in September of 2023. However, several other programs had remained involved in his recruitment over the last year since. That includes Alabama as the program who officially got him to flip ahead of his senior year of high school.

Following Russell’s commitment, the Tide now have the No. 6 class in the nation, per On3’s 2025 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings. Russell is their third-highest rated commitment behind only two ATHs in Darrell Johnson and Derick Smith.

There’s plenty of time for this projected room to change after another season both in college and the preps. Still, with Russell now locked in there, it sets up for quite the competition between them all going into the season after this.

“Going to be fascinating to watch but that’s a good land for Alabama,” said McElroy. “They now have checked the box in 2025 as far as quarterback is concerned.”