Defense? It is Coach's defense. We are pitifully inexperienced in the defensive backfield, but if you are going to throw it you had better be quick about it or you will be looking up at the sky.
I think we will see more of an up tempo passing game with us spreading the ball around more than we have been. I expect another big offensive year.
The specialists are the wild cards. We need decent punting, deep kick offs, and reliable kicks for points. We do not need a big hole in our March to #18, and questionable special teams could do that to us.
Rtr
This ^^
With all due respect to the other posters - "Depth" and "Experience" are slightly DIFFERENT ISSUES than "Tendencies".
On D - I agree that we've run a version of Coach Saban's defense since the day he first stepped off the plane, and I don't expect that to change as long as he's our HC. The game is NOT going to slow down, so we can expect continued emphasis on individual speed, as well as on dealing with Game Tempo. I don't see that changing, but rather continuing to develop. FWIW, nearly every year we face at least ONE unit of the Defense having to massively rebuild. Some years it's LB's, or DL, this year it's the Secondary. So we'll get burned here and there by hot QB's - but on balance we "Should" be fine overall.
On O - IMO we've also run (to varying degrees) some version of Coach Saban's OFFENSE since the day he arrived, and I think we are going to see a more familiar style offense this year. We should see a lot more diversity in the passing game now that we are free of the handicap of the past two seasons that forced us to run 90% of the offense within a 10 yard box from the LOS. We should be a fairly balanced offense most of the time, with more emphasis on grinding against lighter or lesser defenses, and more emphasis on spreading out against better defenses. Passing to set up the run game. My HOPE is that we see the TE position return to the Offense - it's been noticeably absent. And, of course, that we see a RB leading the team in rush yards AND ATTEMPTS.....
On Special Teams, I agree there are many "wild cards" here, and maybe it's just Wishful Thinking, but I feel like we will be (at least) serviceable in ST's. We almost certainly will take a step back in punting, but probably a step forward in FG's and KO's. Punt returns and KO coverage should be ok, if for no other reason than the talent pool we have to draw from for these units.