Jam Miller reportedly suffers upper body injury; could miss multiple games

[CB4]

It’s a dislocated collar bone

Wonder if it was an AC or SC dislocation? That could significantly impact Jam’s recovery time.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

Most unfortunate. I wish him well in his recovery. Jess had the RB's rated as only average before the injury so now I guess we're below average. On the plus side our offense is tilted toward the passing game so maybe that opens up a few holes for the remaining RB's the times we do run.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Pate said expect him to be back by SEC play.

 

[bamaslammer]

No way to color this as anything but bad news, but it's a long season and younger players are going to get needed experience, hopefully experience on the winning side. If he can get back at some point it will make us that much better having survived the experience. Or our lack of run game could unleash unholy pass rushers on a rookie QB and the world ends.

 

[Bama197]

I wish Jam a quick speedy recovery! Justice Hayes probably would have been the starter but ya know....transfer portal and all smh....Next man up!

 

[Ledsteplin]

I wish Jam a quick speedy recovery! Justice Hayes probably would have been the starter but ya know....transfer portal and all smh....Next man up!

And that be Young and Hill. Both have had a good Spring and Fall. And they're getting more reps in. We should be OK.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I hope Jaeden Roberts recovers from his concussion in time for game 1.

 

[arthurdawg]

And that be Young and Hill. Both have had a good Spring and Fall. And they're getting more reps in. We should be OK.

We haven't seen that much of Young, but I do recall some nice hard runs from him. As long as we can get decent pass blocking, we should be fine.

Football brings the injuries... Addressing them with depth and getting your young guys snaps is all part of the game.

 

[Cruiser]

We will start the season without 82% of our rushing production from last year.

 

[Cruloc]

Hate that Jam will be out for a while.....but we will still be better offensively than we were last year.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

We will start the season without 82% of our rushing production from last year.

Nothing like getting baptized by fire. The two other backs who've reported had a very good camp get their chance. I love sports. Your opportunity can arrive much sooner than you think! LOL!

 

[Power Eye]

I hate it for Jam, because I thought he could have a Damien Harris type senior season by coming back, and to some extent he still can. With that said, I think we will be fine in the interim at RB. I don't mean this as any way of disparaging Richard Young, but the apparent emergence of Hill and Washington over Young speaks more about their ability and development than Young's lack thereof. We may not have elite talent at RB, but we have several high end SEC caliber RBs. It's not as high as the 2018 level, but I don't think it's as low as 2021 level either.

 

[BamaInBham]

Hate that Jam will be out for a while.....but we will still be better offensively than we were last year.

The betting line hasn’t moved even a half of a point. And yes they monitor such things. Alabama should be fine. Hate it more for Miller than for Alabama.

 

[CrimSonami]

We will start the season without 82% of our rushing production from last year.

Okay, but what portion of that 82% was generated because our offense was leaning one dimensional?

I really hate Jam is injured. He's my favorite RB since Josh Jacobs. But I think we're gonna be okay with the RB room we have. Jam is gonna be RIGHT THERE in the room, on the practice field and the sideline mentoring the exceptional talent CKD has assembled.

 

[cdub55]

We will start the season without 82% of our rushing production from last year.

I'll take 18% of what we should have this year offensively over 200% of what I KNOW we had last year...

 

[CB4]

We haven't seen that much of Young, but I do recall some nice hard runs from him. As long as we can get decent pass blocking, we should be fine.

Football brings the injuries... Addressing them with depth and getting your young guys snaps is all part of the game.

The big issue in losing Jam isn’t so much the talent issue. Young and Hill are tremendously talented guys. The difference is in style. Hill and Young are the big back, physical guys. Jam offered a little bit of change up. A little quicker, a little more of a threat on the edges.

Not to imply Jam isn’t “physical”. All you have to is look at the guy. He is a beast. He is just a step or two “quicker”.

Maybe Dear or Washington or Riley can offer that in his absence?

 

[Cruloc]

I think the biggest issue with losing Jam will be blitz pickups. But Ty is helping the OL with blocking assignments, so I'd imagine he'll help the RB's with their blitz assignments.

 

[cdub55]

The big issue in losing Jam isn’t so much the talent issue. Young and Hill are tremendously talented guys. The difference is in style. Hill and Young are the big back, physical guys. Jam offered a little bit of change up. A little quicker, a little more of a threat on the edges.

Not to imply Jam isn’t “physical”. All you have to is look at the guy. He is a beast. He is just a step or two “quicker”.

Maybe Dear or Washington or Riley can offer that in his absence?

If you go back and look at what Deboer and Grubb did at Washington, they did utilize the RB position in the passing game, but not as much as some think. In 2023, Dillon Johnson caught 24 passes for 190 yards in comparison to having 233 rushing attempts. With the talent and depth we have at the wide receiver position, I don't see us throwing the ball to the backs very often. A lot of CKD and Grubbs offense is grounded in play action, pass pro, check down's, or motioning to empty for the RB. Having a versatile RB like Jam clearly fits that mold for what they want to do, but hopefully we will be able to make due with the remaining corps of players until he is able to return. Sometimes things like this can be a blessing in disguise. Someone is going to have to step up and hopefully it will give us two extremely solid RB's for a late season push come playoff time when Jam is a full go.

 

[Cruiser]

I think the biggest issue with losing Jam will be blitz pickups. But Ty is helping the OL with blocking assignments, so I'd imagine he'll help the RB's with their blitz assignments.

Jam is also a great check down option out of the backfield for Ty

 

[CB4]

If you go back and look at what Deboer and Grubb did at Washington, they did utilize the RB position in the passing game, but not as much as some think. In 2023, Dillon Johnson caught 24 passes for 190 yards in comparison to having 233 rushing attempts. With the talent and depth we have at the wide receiver position, I don't see us throwing the ball to the backs very often. A lot of CKD and Grubbs offense is grounded in play action, pass pro, check down's, or motioning to empty for the RB. Having a versatile RB like Jam clearly fits that mold for what they want to do, but hopefully we will be able to make due with the remaining corps of players until he is able to return. Sometimes things like this can be a blessing in disguise. Someone is going to have to step up and hopefully it will give us two extremely solid RB's for a late season push come playoff time when Jam is a full go.

Excellent point. I heard Martin Houston say a similar thing on his podcast, albeit before the Jam injury. One thing DeBoer showed in his first year is his willingness to play guys “early and often” in meaningful roles. Houston said he feels we are going to see young guys get the chance to step up early.
You never want to lose a player of Jam’s caliber for any significant period of time. But situations like this does allow you to get other players on the field and build depth.