Question: Depth Chart for 2016 (Direct all depth chart discussion here)

gtgilbert

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

I don't see Walker Jones starting at MLB. I see Shaun Dion moving over or Holcombe taking that spot.

I think Marlon will be one CB and Minkah and Sheffield will fight for the 2nd CB spot with the 'loser' taking the Star role. I think our secondary on paper will be the best in the SEC and possibly the nation.
Agree about Walker. I could also see Evans getting some looks at the inside positions as well as the rush specialist role he's had. He's not added a lot of weight since he arried so is a bit light to be an every down JACK or SAM right on the LOS, but he's certainly got the speed and quickness to go sideline to sideline and would make a fantastic spy against mobile QBs, much like he did against Clemson.
 

gtgilbert

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

anyone else think we could see Taylor get challenged at RG? After rewatching the Clemson game, some of those issues on the right side didn't appear to be all on Jackson. Don't know if if was lack of communication or if Taylor just couldn't make the reach block, but on quite a few of the busted plays it looked like Jackson was expecting Taylor to make a reach block over to the DE and that's how the DE got through.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Some of ya'll must have forgot about the weight since start of the season.
Rashaan Evans is at 225 right now, but should hit 230, 235ish and should be okay playing at that weight. He's making progress as he should. I don't know why some of you are saying he's not putting on weight fast.
Blake Barnett needed to gain weight. ( He already did... He's at 210lb right now. I would expect him to be at 215, 220ish in March)
Calvin Ridley- I expect him to be around 195ish in March.
Christian Miller is at 215, while Walker Jones is at 238.

QB: I think Saban really want us to have a QB at end of the spring, so they can spend all summer with wr and heading into fall camp. We really need that. We can't afford to do what we did in Ole Miss game. Based on players and coaches comment lately, they seem so high on Barnett, and some has said he torched the defense on several occasions.

On RB: Let's not give the starting spot to Scarbough or Harris just yet. I keep getting a feeling we're going to add one more RB to the list, whether it's a 2016 class or juco one.
WR: I think we need to develop a depth behind Foster, Stewart and Ridley. Sims and others gonna have to step up.

I've heard lot of good things about our LB corps: Walker Jones, Christian Miller, Rashaan Evans, Mehki Brown, Tim Williams, Keaton Anderson, Shaun Hamilton, Ryan Anderson, Adonis Thomas, Jamey Mosley and Foster. For 2016, I don't think we'll see lot of changes at LB, but I would expect few of younger players to be cross trained and I would say Christian Miller, Keaton Anderson and Adoni Thomas has real good chance of seeing significant playing time in 2016. I wouldn't be shocked to see Evans being moved all over the place, but expect his role to increase. With new LB coach with Luposi, We could see different looks on the field. The way I look at it, Beside Foster and Anderson, every position within LB are open.

Now on OL: I seriously doubt Taylor will be pushed for the starting job. He actually did pretty good job this season. Lot of his issues were from his side with Jackson. They were never on same page... but he did well in the holes between him and Kelly. As far as I'm concerned, the OL spot is pretty much locked up heading into the Spring, unless Cotton makes a serious push and I expect him to. Baldwin could struggle .

I'm more intriqued to see what happens back in secondary. Hump and Jackson are pretty much locked up their CB and Safety spot. I want to see what happens between Minkah and Sheffield fighting for CB: What's going to happen to Tony Brown? He's too good to be not playing in the fall. What will we do with Hootie Jones? He's more of a thumper safety. Will Jones lose some weight? Lot of questions back end of the secondary. IF we have too much talent in secondary, will we finally go back to man to man coverage time to time? Will saban trust his cbs little more ?

Kicking duties: I wouldn't be surprised to see new comer do the kickoff while adam does field goals.

Who will return the punts? Kickoff? My money is on Stewart, Harris, Sheffield, Minkah, etc.
 

Moro Creek

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

anyone else think we could see Taylor get challenged at RG? After rewatching the Clemson game, some of those issues on the right side didn't appear to be all on Jackson. Don't know if if was lack of communication or if Taylor just couldn't make the reach block, but on quite a few of the busted plays it looked like Jackson was expecting Taylor to make a reach block over to the DE and that's how the DE got through.
Taylor was manhandled on several plays. I think Lester Cotton will move Taylor to a backup role.
 

Sabanizer

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

QB: I think Saban really want us to have a QB at end of the spring, so they can spend all summer with wr and heading into fall camp. We really need that. We can't afford to do what we did in Ole Miss game. Based on players and coaches comment lately, they seem so high on Barnett, and some has said he torched the defense on several occasions.
Since we just won 2 SEC's and a NC, starting a #1 rated in class 5 star redshirt freshman takes a little pressure off of his development if the ceiling is higher than the others. If we drop a game, the sky will not be falling like the Ole Miss game, but that game we have to win. I can't imagine what was going through Coker's head when we were courting transfers this past off season. And yes, we need to have our leader set in stone game one, I hope!
 

JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Taylor was manhandled on several plays. I think Lester Cotton will move Taylor to a backup role.
Go back to my comments. Taylor started for the first time. he had some growing pains. but most of issues were on Jackson, that caused Taylor to have some issues as well. I do not expect him to lose his jobat RG to Cotton. Cotton would probably struggle with Baldwin next to him. We need experienced player at RG next to Baldwin ... help him out. No way we would have two new starters at the RG and RT together on that side.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Since we just won 2 SEC's and a NC, starting a #1 rated in class 5 star redshirt freshman takes a little pressure off of his development if the ceiling is higher than the others. If we drop a game, the sky will not be falling like the Ole Miss game, but that game we have to win. I can't imagine what was going through Coker's head when we were courting transfers this past off season. And yes, we need to have our leader set in stone game one, I hope!
I totally agree. I think the coach staff had the right to feel concern heading into August, and there weren't answers until Coker started to do better in late fall camp. That's why it's critical for young players at QB to take the leadership early on in the spring and do it. I've heard BB6 is doing that.
 

rgw

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

I think Saban/Kiffin would like for two of the QBs to establish themselves as the clear favorites in the Spring then not regress during the interim between Spring and Fall camps. I don't think they want another Fall camp with a 5-wide NASCAR competition at QB. It was a net-negative on the development of the QB position in my opinion. It cost us dearly against Ole Miss and probably stunted the entire offense's development.


Edit: I say TWO to be established by the Spring because you get a pretty ideal starter-backup scenario. In Fall camp, you focus your time on those two guys and either way you end up with a backup you have some confidence in knowing the offense. We could see that really none of the options early in this season had a good grasp on the offense and I think the competition being so wide open was part of the reason.
 
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gtgilbert

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Some of ya'll must have forgot about the weight since start of the season.
Rashaan Evans is at 225 right now, but should hit 230, 235ish and should be okay playing at that weight. He's making progress as he should. I don't know why some of you are saying he's not putting on weight fast.
Because even at 235, that's probably not big enough to be a 3 down player at OLB for us since the OLB very often has to go against an OT to set the edge against the run. This is true for both the SAM in base and the JACK in base and nickle when they put their hands into the dirt. He came to campus at just under 220, so he's only gained a little over 5lbs - not a lot. The same thing has been said about Tim Williams till he got up to over 240.

Don't take this as being down on Evans - I'm not, at all. He's done great as a rush specialist and when they've put him in lined up more like an ILB where he's been a QB spy/shadow. It's just at under around 240 he'd likely be a more active contributor as an ILB, and in fact with his speed and quickness he could be an amazing WLB if he could make the transition. He could still be in the rotation as an edge rusher. plus we know there's an opportunity there, and not a lot of players at ILB who have real game experience competing for it.
 

Moro Creek

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Go back to my comments. Taylor started for the first time. he had some growing pains. but most of issues were on Jackson, that caused Taylor to have some issues as well. I do not expect him to lose his jobat RG to Cotton. Cotton would probably struggle with Baldwin next to him. We need experienced player at RG next to Baldwin ... help him out. No way we would have two new starters at the RG and RT together on that side.


My comments were not based on any of your posts, but I do believe we should and will have two new starters on the right side of the OL. With the practice time and coaching they have, I don't buy the RG and RT being out of sync as the problem. Our RG and RT played poorly in more than one game. For what it is worth, we did not have an experienced player at LG, and he played well. Just MHO.
 

rgw

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

I think Shank Taylor got better as the season went on and Dom Jackson's problems were strictly in pass protection. Jackson had a few instances where he got overanxious to get to the second level on zone runs, but he was mostly dominant as a run blocker. I'm a believer that experience on the offensive line is worth a lot...maybe as much as any position on the field. Taylor has a huge # of snaps advantage over his competition and I think that will make a difference.

Everything is a competition but it seems pretty rare for OL veteran starters for get unseated for another player. We've seen guys shift around like Caldwell, Johnson, and famously B. Jones...but rarely has a guy been benched over the off-season. I expect the JUCO OT, Baldwin, to be the odds on favorite at RT and Hassenauer to get the nod at C.

It's not fun to go chalk on these things but the tendencies kinda dictate it. Baldwin was brought in to be the RT. Hassenauer is pretty much a shoe-in at center. Taylor has 15 starts under his belt.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

[/B]

My comments were not based on any of your posts, but I do believe we should and will have two new starters on the right side of the OL. With the practice time and coaching they have, I don't buy the RG and RT being out of sync as the problem. Our RG and RT played poorly in more than one game. For what it is worth, we did not have an experienced player at LG, and he played well. Just MHO.
Youre not really getting it in a sense where I have to explain it little more further. What I'm trying to say that based on our history on OL, we're not going to inject two new starters on either side on the OL. IF you go back and look at OL since 2008: We always have had someone experienced next to the new guy:
Year LT LG C RG RT TE
2008 Smith Johnson Caldwell M.Davis Drew Davis Walker
2009 Carpenter Johnson Vlacho B.Jones Drew Davis Peek
2010 Carpenter warmack Vlachos B.Jones DJ Fluker Dial
2011 B. Jones Warmack Vlachos Steens DJ Fluker Williams
2012 C. Kouan Warmack B.Jones Steens DJ Fluker Williams
2013 C. Kouan A.Kouan R.Kelly Steens Shepherd Vogler
2014 Robinson A.Kouan R.Kelly Brown Shepard Howard
2015 Robinson R.Piers R.Kelly A.Taylor D.Jackson Howard
2016 Robinson R.Piers Hassenauer Taylor Baldwin Howard (Projected)

So, the coaching staff is not going to throw two new people together on the OL.....
 

JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

You lost me with your first sentence.
You don't have to be a ..... about this. I'm trying to explain to you that there is a pattern on our OL Line, and how I seriously doubt we will see Taylor getting pushed for the RG job, when he did well this year.
 

RTR91

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

You don't have to be a ..... about this. I'm trying to explain to you that there is a pattern on our OL Line, and how I seriously doubt we will see Taylor getting pushed for the RG job, when he did well this year.
He's not being rude about it. Your first sentence doesn't make much sense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gtgilbert

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

Youre not really getting it in a sense where I have to explain it little more further. What I'm trying to say that based on our history on OL, we're not going to inject two new starters on either side on the OL. IF you go back and look at OL since 2008: We always have had someone experienced next to the new guy:
Year LT LG C RG RT TE
2008 Smith Johnson Caldwell M.Davis Drew Davis Walker
2009 Carpenter Johnson Vlacho B.Jones Drew Davis Peek
2010 Carpenter warmack Vlachos B.Jones DJ Fluker Dial
2011 B. Jones Warmack Vlachos Steens DJ Fluker Williams
2012 C. Kouan Warmack B.Jones Steens DJ Fluker Williams
2013 C. Kouan A.Kouan R.Kelly Steens Shepherd Vogler
2014 Robinson A.Kouan R.Kelly Brown Shepard Howard
2015 Robinson R.Piers R.Kelly A.Taylor D.Jackson Howard
2016 Robinson R.Piers Hassenauer Taylor Baldwin Howard (Projected)

So, the coaching staff is not going to throw two new people together on the OL.....
We see two different things when looking at the list of starters. You're seeing some pattern that might or might not be real of not having two new starters on the same side of the OL. I see a list of players where every single one of them except Vlachos and Davis made an NFL squad in some capacity so there wasn't really ever a reason for someone to lose a starting spot. I also see that Saban will move guys around to make every attempt at getting the best group of 5 guys on the OL, otherwise you don't move an all-american guard out to tackle, and then an all-american tackle back into center. BTW, we DID have two starters on the right side of the OL this year (not that there was a choice really - both the RG and RT graduated). I also saw a pattern of play this year where the right side of the OL was inconsistent, and led to a lot of negative plays. Taylor was a part of that right side, and had some of the misses. Looking back at the games many times Taylor was not getting out quick enough (or at all) on combo blocks where the Jackson was punching the DE in and then trying to get to the second level. Given that, I think it's possible he could get pushed for PT and if there really is some major worry about two new guys on one side, move Pierschbacher over to the right and put the new guy at LG - CamRob apparently taught him well on that side.
 
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JustNeedMe81

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Re: Summation of 2016 Depth Chart / Departing Juniors and Seniors

We see two different things when looking at the list of starters. You're seeing some pattern that might or might not be real of not having two new starters on the same side of the OL. I see a list of players where every single one of them except Vlachos and Davis made an NFL squad in some capacity so there wasn't really ever a reason for someone to lose a starting spot. I also see that Saban will move guys around to make every attempt at getting the best group of 5 guys on the OL, otherwise you don't move an all-american guard out to tackle, and then an all-american tackle back into center. BTW, we DID have two starters on the right side of the OL this year (not that there was a choice really - both the RG and RT graduated). I also saw a pattern of play this year where the right side of the OL was inconsistent, and led to a lot of negative plays. Taylor was a part of that right side, and had some of the misses. Looking back at the games many times Taylor was not getting out quick enough (or at all) on combo blocks where the Jackson was punching the DE in and then trying to get to the second level. Given that, I think it's possible he could get pushed for PT and if there really is some major worry about two new guys on one side, move Pierschbacher over to the right and put the new guy at LG - CamRob apparently taught him well on that side.
Right, I get what you're saying. I think the Left side is solidified and especially with Baldwin coming in to compete for RT spot. Look at their season stats: http://www.cfbfilmroom.com/alabama-crimson-tide/ I expect Taylor to hold up, He finished with 97.3 percent.
 

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