Former Alabama quarterback shares biggest concern about Tide ahead of 2025 season

Former Alabama quarterback, Greg McElroy shared his biggest concern about Alabama football ahead of the 2025 season.

“What concerns me about Alabama is compared to the best versions of Alabama, compared to the roster of 2015, the roster of 2016, the roster of 2020, 2018, all those teams that were always in the mix for a national championship, they all had unbelievable depth,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “This year’s team does not have the same type of depth that they’ve had in the past when they’ve won national championships.”

The reality is that in the name, image and likeness era, it is difficult to build a team like the ones McElroy described is for a plethora of reasons. However, McElroy focused on the Tide’s 2024 injury woes as the reason that Alabama had depth issues last year.

“Last year, Alabama kind of quietly got hit with the injury bug,” McElroy said. “Qua Russaw, their outstanding pass rusher, looked really good in the first couple of games, and then against Wisconsin, he gets banged up and is kind of dealing with some injuries throughout the season. They lost Deontae Lawson to a knee injury at the midway point. The defense wasn’t quite the same. They lost Keon Sabb there in the back end. They lost Que Robinson, who is an outstanding pass rusher in his own right, to a broken arm late in the year. They lost Cole Adams. And those are just the guys that missed significant time. The guys I just listed doesn’t include the guys that were playing far below 100% because of nagging injuries that they suffered throughout the season. There were several guys that couldn’t even practice because they were so banged up, yet they had to play on Saturday because they didn’t have the depth and they knew that if they were out, there would be a significant drop off from the starters to the backups.”

McElroy pinpointed the exact moment he thinks the Crimson Tide’s depth decreased.

“It was really noticeable last year and understandable too by the way with all of the portal exits after Saban’s retirement that when the starters got hurt, there was a bigger drop off then what you would expect when watching Alabama,” McElroy said. “I think they’re better equip to manage it this year, but in the event that they have a similar injury year to what they had a year ago, they could get really young in a hurry. So that’s something you have to be mindful of.”

McElroy added that if Alabama stays healthy across the board, do not be surprised if this team is contending again for a national championship.