With A-Day in the rear view mirror, Alabama enters the offseason with a real quarterback conundrum

Here’s a remarkable stat, the last eight full-time starting quarterbacks at Alabama — i.e., every QB1 for Nick Saban since John Parker Wilson — either won an SEC Championship or a National Championship as a first-year starter. 

That’s Greg McElroy, A.J. McCarron, Blake Sims, Jake Coker, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. 

Technically, you can place a small asterisk here because Blake Barnett did start the 2016 opener against USC, but he was quickly benched in the first quarter in favor of Hurts, who led the Tide the rest of the season. 

That’s what Alabama fans have become accustomed to: The next man up just becomes the next guy to win a ring. The last three Alabama quarterbacks were Heisman Trophy finalists and Hurts made it to New York, too.

So that’s the backdrop of what Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson are up against. Expectations are sky-high for Alabama QBs. But after an up-and-down spring and another inconsistent showing from both quarterbacks on A-Day, perhaps it’s time to lower such outlooks for 2023. 

“We’re really trying to get the QBs to understand to eliminate the bad plays. The plays that get you beat,” Saban told Jordan Rodgers during halftime of the spring game. 

“Consistency is the key to the drill.”

The only thing consistent from Milroe and Simpson all spring was the duo’s ability to routinely frustrate their head coach. 

On one play, Jalen Milroe can dazzle with a long run or a perfectly-placed corner route. But then on consecutive snaps, the junior might throw off his back foot or completely lack any awareness in the pocket. Ty Simpson looks fantastic when he knows where to go with the football, but his indecisiveness also leads to plays like a red zone interception (where he was late on the throw) or prematurely leaving the pocket for no reason. 

Accuracy is a concern with both quarterbacks, too. 

“I think the big thing we’re working on with the quarterbacks is fundamentally, what they have to do to be able to process what the defense is doing,” Saban said Saturday. 

“Get a pre-read of what they’re playing. Are they playing Cover 2? Cover 7? Are they playing 3-deep zone?

“So that you have a plan in your mind, ‘This is where I am reading, this is where I am going, and this is the progression I want to go through.’ And trust in that and believe in that and not start drifting around in the pocket before you give up on what your read might be.”

Alabama’s quarterback competition was never going to be decided Saturday, but the problem is the Tide enter the second phase of the offseason with a real conundrum: Is a championship-caliber quarterback on the roster? Are either Milroe or Simpson, or heck, even throw freshman enrollee Dylan Lonergan, who had some nice moments on A-Day, capable of becoming that guy in 2023?

Here’s the good news, bad news for Alabama: The bad news is if the Tide had to answer that question — Do we have a championship quarterback? — today, the answer would be no. 

The good news is that Nick Saban doesn’t actually have to find out if that’s true for another 4.5 months. 

There’s still plenty of time for Milroe or Simpson to improve. Both can get better the rest of the offseason. Both are surrounded by a gaggle of skill talent and will be buoyed by what looks like one nasty defense.

While all of Alabama’s quarterbacks were plagued by a bunch of uncharacteristic drops on Saturday, Saban has expressed confidence in a retooled receiver room and a stable of studs at tailback throughout the spring. And he did so again after A-Day. The issue is for that group to fully function, they need the right trigger man to facilitate the football with a crisp consistency. 

“I think we have pretty good skill guys, I think we have guys that can make plays and as a quarterback, it’s not only just the plays that you can make – and I like both guys’ athleticism to be able to extend plays and get out of trouble and make plays with their feet, which they did a couple of times today — but at the same time, I think we’ve gotta work on going through progressions and develop confidence in the passing game so that we can distribute the ball to other people who can make plays more effectively and more efficiently,” Saban said. 

It’s rather obvious why Alabama has been in the rumor mill for a transfer quarterback a couple of times this offseason. The Tide reportedly flirted with a pair of ACC quarterbacks — Drake Maye, cough, cough. Oh hey there, Tyler Van Dyke — but nothing materialized. Saban left open the possibility that Alabama could add another signal-caller to the roster during the current second transfer portal window, saying, “Everybody needs to ask themselves: Are they playing winning football?”

The issue is there isn’t a current option in the portal that looks like an immediate upgrade, and the track record of transfer quarterbacks entering a program post-spring is spotty at best, too. 

So barring a surprise, Alabama’s got what it’s got. Today, that doesn’t look like a quarterback capable of leading a championship team. But the season doesn’t start today. Saban, and new OC Tommy Rees, have close to five months to figure out how to change that.