Nick Saban assesses Alabama's roster for 2024

Nick Saban has been analyzing Alabama’s roster for nearly two decades. However, as we know, he’s now doing it as an television analyst rather than the Crimson Tide’s head coach.

Saban broke down his former team in Tuscaloosa while on the desk at SEC Media Days from Dallas on Monday. While he thinks they have several quality pieces, he listed two positions that are questions, one on offense and one on defense, for them going into 2024.

“I think ‘Bama has really got a lot of really good players,” said Saban.

“I think they’ve got question marks in the secondary, especially at corner,” Saban noted. “Getting (Kadyn) Proctor back, you know, probably was important because they were a little bit weak at tackle so that’s going to help them.”

Still, the overall team is the focus for Saban in regards to Alabama. If the Tide are able to avoid injury, he thinks they have more than enough from top to bottom to continue contending.

“I think depth of the team will be the biggest question,” said Saban. “If Alabama can stay healthy, I think they have enough good, first-line players to compete against anybody.”

As Alabama moves on from Saban to Kalen DeBoer, they have 13 returning starters to take into this next era. They did lose 33 to the portal and 10 to the NFL Draft in an extreme exodus for the program. Even so, they return 31 players while adding 13 transfers. The Tide also retained a No. 2 class that’s incoming with 27 signees.

It’s incredibly odd to hear Saban give his thoughts on Alabama while broadcasting rather than coaching. Still, either way, he thinks the Tide won’t see much drop off from his tenure with what their roster looks like going into the fall.

Saban, SEC analysts make predictions for 2024 SEC Championship

While he was the head coach at Alabama, Nick Saban wanted to keep his focus on the task at hand. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, which meant discussing whatever was ahead the coming week and avoiding looking farther down the schedule.

But, in his new role as an ESPN analyst, Saban can break that rule. He did just that Monday morning at SEC Media Days when he, along with Greg McElroy and Benjamin Watson, picked who would be in the conference championship.

Saban predicted Texas would take on Georgia in the title game. McElroy also chose the Longhorns but said they’d go against Alabama. As for Watson, he went with UGA against Ole Miss in the championship from Atlanta.