In general, I think it's absolutely critical for 'Bama that it gets some serious help out of this crop of incoming DBs. There will be some misses, of course, who don't make an impact, but UA needs several of those guys to pan out and play at a high level. That was the big, glaring need of this class, we spent a lot of scholarships addressing it (6 if you count Keaton as a hybrid safety), and we can't afford to go 1-6 or 2-6 on that front. We need to have that haul produce a couple of bona fide stars and at least a couple of more quality SEC-starter caliber players.
Few notes on some guys:
(1) Don't buy for a second that Sheffield is 185. He looks to be in the 165-170 pound range, and he's going to need some time in the S&C program under Cochran.
(2) McMillon was highly underrated to me as a prep prospect. He's got the look of a natural inside LB, and given our lack of depth there, I can't imagine that he will redshirt in 2015.
(3) Bo has some incredible talent, but I have no idea on where he will play, and honestly I'm not sure the coaches really do either. The horse-with-no-name players like that, so to speak, always create a lot of concern with me.
(4) If Hentges is remotely ready, he's probably going to play some at TE next year just due to depth alone.
(5) Physically, I love what both Taylor (off-field issues aside for a moment) and Payne give the interior DL in the run game, but I don't really expect either of them to become much of a factor in the pass game. More often than not, those guys are going to watch 3rd and 8 as a spectator just like the rest of us.
(6) In my heart of hearts, I want to be a skeptic of Ridley. He was really old for his classification, and he has pretty average size... but holy hell does his film look good. He'll play this fall, barring injury.