Alabama QBs in 2024

[JohnD]

Amen. It's why most of us spent the whole year in the complaint thread. Even in games we won, we had massive amounts of mistakes.

This was the "hardest" Bama team to watch in CNS's tenure. It's not even close!

All the offensive #s were down this year too. Won games despite our liabilities most of the year. Talent can do that until talent meets talent.

Saban harps on how this can be a bad thing. Turns out, it is!

This WAS a hard team to watch, but I think it was one of the more satisfying seasons Saban has had. When you look at the "issues" they had at so many positions, some issues where they just could not be fixed with the available personnel, to get this far from where they came from, to win the SEC and get into the playoffs was really incredible.
It is super hard to replace both coordinators AND break in a raw QB and others with no experience. It's the first time Saban has had to do it with bringing in external people who had to learn the system. Next year will be better. QB has to be figured out, Latham is not irreplaceable, but they have to get to work to shore up the OL.

 

[KrAzY3]

To reiterate my position in general, it isn't to say Milroe doesn't have very real issues. But when he's out there fielding ground balls and fly balls, very much not in the job description of a QB, it's going to create new problems and exacerbate existing ones.

As to the chicken and the egg question of if it's Milroe's fault that the OL allowed a historic number of sacks, well let's just look at the USF game where Ty who is supposed to be better technically, and Buchner who was more experienced both played.

USF got 5 sacks, the most they had since 2019.So the OL was just bad a protecting the QB, period.

 

[rtr90]

Amen. It's why most of us spent the whole year in the complaint thread. Even in games we won, we had massive amounts of mistakes.

This was the "hardest" Bama team to watch in CNS's tenure. It's not even close!

All the offensive #s were down this year too. Won games despite our liabilities most of the year. Talent can do that until talent meets talent.

even 2007 Bama was easier to watch offensively

 

[crimsonaudio]

so these numbers can't be right. 360 sacks in a season would be like 30+ sacks per game....

Haha, sorry, yes, I copied sack yardage rather than sack numbers. Clarifying now.

 

[rtr90]

Haha, sorry, yes, I copied sack yardage rather than sack numbers. Clarifying now.

So many times I felt like JM was so much bigger and stronger the LB that he could have just pushed him off and got positive yds running

 

[crimsonaudio]

so these numbers can't be right. 360 sacks in a season would be like 30+ sacks per game....

Correctly attributed numbers, by season:
2020 (Jones): 19 sacks, 116 yards (1.46/gm)
2021 (Young): 41 sacks, 287 yards (2.73/gm)
2022 (Young): 22 sacks, 153 yards (1.69/gm)
2023 (Milroe): 49 sacks, 360 yards (3.5/gm)

 

[KrAzY3]

Correctly attributed numbers, by season:
2020 (Jones): 19 sacks, 116 yards (1.46/gm)
2021 (Young): 41 sacks, 287 yards (2.73/gm)
2022 (Young): 22 sacks, 153 yards (1.69/gm)
2023 (Milroe): 49 sacks, 360 yards (3.5/gm)

Just an important note here, because it's pretty relevant if we are attaching the sack numbers to the quarterback.

That's total sacks, not sacks when Milroe was playing quarterback (a team record by the way). For instance in the USF game Alabama did not play Milroe but they still gave up 5 sacks. I assume not the only sack given up to the backups but not checking that right now.

It does illustrate how horrible protection was in general though. If you have 22 sacks one season, then 5 in a single game to USF... ouch that's just plain bad, not saying you were inferring anything, just noting that.

 

[CrimsonBloodn62]

Correctly attributed numbers, by season:
2020 (Jones): 19 sacks, 116 yards (1.46/gm)
2021 (Young): 41 sacks, 287 yards (2.73/gm)
2022 (Young): 22 sacks, 153 yards (1.69/gm)
2023 (Milroe): 49 sacks, 360 yards (3.5/gm)

How in the world did JM survive the year uninjured? We had issues that were hidden from the public to have that many sacks. It looks like we had a team divided on the offensive side of the ball.

 

[BamaMoon]

Just an important note here, because it's pretty relevant if we are attaching the sack numbers to the quarterback.

That's total sacks, not sacks when Milroe was playing quarterback (a team record by the way). For instance in the USF game Alabama did not play Milroe but they still gave up 5 sacks. I assume not the only sack given up to the backups but not checking that right now.

It does illustrate how horrible protection was in general though. If you have 22 sacks one season, then 5 in a single game to USF... ouch that's just plain bad, not saying you were inferring anything, just noting that.

IF you are going to note that you also have to note the sacks that occurred in '22 when JM filled in for BY when he was injured.

 

[KrAzY3]

IF you are going to note that you also have to note the sacks that occurred in '22 when JM filled in for BY when he was injured.

To what point? I think we all know Milroe ain't Bryce Young and Alabama doesn't have a spare one laying around.

If we're trying to diagnose what happened this year, and specifically where Milroe's development is this year and how good the offensive line protected the quarterback... well you get the drill.

All we need to do is see how good they were at protecting the other quarterbacks. The answer is pretty darn bad. USF had their most sacks since 2019 when the other quarterbacks where in there (mind you they mostly play against much lower competition), being protected by the starting offensive line.

So either we are left with one of two conclusions really. One is the offensive line just sucked at protecting the quarterback, which is highly likely. The other, which is a bit... hard to swallow is that all three quarterbacks were just really bad at the same things.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

2 things can be true. We had a QB who held the ball too long and an OL who really struggled with pass protection especially early in the season. The combination of those 2 things led to a lot more sacks this season.

 

[BamaMoon]

To what point? I think we all know Milroe ain't Bryce Young and Alabama doesn't have a spare one laying around.

If we're trying to diagnose what happened this year, and specifically where Milroe's development is this year and how good the offensive line protected the quarterback... well you get the drill.

All we need to do is see how good they were at protecting the other quarterbacks. The answer is pretty darn bad. USF had their most sacks since 2019 when the other quarterbacks where in there (mind you they mostly play against much lower competition), being protected by the starting offensive line.

So either we are left with one of two conclusions really. One is the offensive line just sucked at protecting the quarterback, which is highly likely. The other, which is a bit... hard to swallow is that all three quarterbacks were just really bad at the same things.

I wasn't trying to make a point at all except to say some of the sacks in '22 were during Jalen's PT when BY was injured.

Frankly, I was shocked at the amount of sacks BY had in '21!

The fact JM was the primary QB outside of USF is pretty plain.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

2 things can be true. We had a QB who held the ball too long and an OL who really struggled with pass protection especially early in the season. The combination of those 2 things led to a lot more sacks this season.

I concur...............fix those things and look out

 

[jjv0004]

I see Ty Simpson staying as an indication that he has been told there is still an open competition and he clearly believes he is better and can win the job. I love Jalen as a human being but I hope Ty steps up and beats him out because we need a passing QB to win it all.

 

[davefrat]

Seems like pretty much every game started with Milroe getting sacked on the first play from scrimmage.

 

[RammerJammer14]

Seems like pretty much every game started with Milroe getting sacked on the first play from scrimmage.

Personally, I know that I expected our first drive to be a 3 and out every game, beginning with a negative yardage play on 1st or 2nd down. In the past under Saban I expected that our first drive would result in a FG, then we would dial things in and start producing TDs. This whole season I just expected to have to weather 2-3 series before we got anything going.

 

[davefrat]

Personally, I know that I expected our first drive to be a 3 and out every game, beginning with a negative yardage play on 1st or 2nd down. In the past under Saban I expected that our first drive would result in a FG, the. We would dial things in and start producing TDs. This whole season I just expected to have to weather 2-3 series before we got anything going.

And it seemed like it was almost the exact same kind of sack where he danced around, moved sideways/backwards and got twisted down.

I'm happy with the way the season went, but it was really weird from start to finish in more ways than one.

 

[rolltide7854]

2 things can be true. We had a QB who held the ball too long and an OL who really struggled with pass protection especially early in the season. The combination of those 2 things led to a lot more sacks this season.

It doesn't matter who the QB is when the defense almost beats the QB to the pocket or when you have a rusher with a running start untouched straight to the QB.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

It doesn't matter who the QB is when the defense almost beats the QB to the pocket or when you have a rusher with a running start untouched straight to the QB.

Yup. And it doesn't matter who you have on the OL when the QB holds the ball for 4 seconds or can't feel pressure and move in the pocket or hit the check down. Look at Penix vs Texas, he had a couple really nice throws after making subtle movements in the pocket to avoid pressure.

I don't put all the sacks on Milroe but I don't put all of them on the OL either. It was a team effort.

 

[JDCrimson]

So Saban doesn't fire anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Here is how it works on good authority when Saban wants to make a change.

Saban call his agent and says i you to find me candidates for X position coach along with any other instructions regarding X coach. Saban's agent calls agent of X coach. X coach's agent calls X coach and says you need to take a look at some other opportunities and here is how we are going to do this. Most agents establish a relationship with their coach clients with the understanding that you need follow my lead when i call to say its time to move.

With this approach the embarrassment of a public firing are minimized, buyouts are maximized, etc.

So the BOB thing is interesting more now than ever.

CNS didn't fire him, right? He chose to go back to the NFL. Did he encourage him to leave? OR, did BOB see the writing on the wall and get out while there was time? How this shook out we might not ever know until a book is written and then it might be a "he said; he said" deal.

But now we know from JM that BOB didn't believe JM should play QB. Even if BOB thought he would stay at Bama, he saw what this season has indicated that JM is possibly too flawed to develop especially if he were comparing him to Bryce.

FWIW, I don't think anybody really expected JM to have to ever play QB at Bama. Why CNS recruited him is still a mystery to me. He doesn't fit the mold of the others he's recruited since Jalen Hurts.

This time last year it seemed clear the next guy up would be TS, but then he wasn't ready OR was too stubborn to just be him and not try to match Jalen's hero ball stuff (at least that was the scuttle butt coming out of fall camp).

All of that led to the problem we had last fall, early season and all the way up to the midseason when we put a big ole bandaid on the QB wound and went with a new watered-down approach of a simplified offense.

EDIT: In no way take this as a defense of BOB. I just think it's becoming more and more clear how all this unfolded and especially why BOB didn't even try to develop JM.