Editor’s note: This is part five of an eight-piece series that will take a look at the entire team as Alabama heads into summer workouts. Register to view the premium content in this series. Here we take a look at Alabama’s defensive.
Projected depth chart
First group: Raekwon Davis, LaBryan Ray, DJ Dale
Backups: Phidarian Mathis, Antonio Alfano, Christian Barmore, Stephon Wynn, Tevita Musika
What we like
This group was one of the surprises of A-Day. After losing Quinnen Williams and Isaiah Buggs to the NFL, it wasn’t clear on what should be expected of the defensive line beyond Raekwon Davis. But to their credit, the defensive line and the front in general for the first- and second-team defenses had strong showings. Alabama had nine players register at least one sack during A-Day.
Davis returns as the feature player after a solid junior season. Davis was often overshadowed by Quinnen Williams and Isaiah Buggs, Alabama fans should expect a monster year out of Davis with this being his last season in Tuscaloosa. He’s a monster of a man, standing 6-foot-7. When he wants to be, Davis is unblockable at times.
Davis earned All-SEC second team accolades from the Associated Press after recording 55 total tackles to go with six quarterback pressures, 5.5 tackles for a loss and 1.5 sacks (-14 yards) during his junior season. Alabama will need Davis to play at a high level every single snap this season.
Part 1: Quarterbacks Part 2: Running backs Part 3: WRs/TEs Part 4: Offensive line
