Where ESPN ranks Alabama football's offseason among SEC teams

The Alabama Crimson Tide have had a very eventful offseason prior to the 2026 campaign.

Alabama lost a plethora of talent to both the NFL draft and transfer portal, but the Tide were able to reload and add some big time playmakers over the course of the offseason. Head coach Kalen DeBoer and his staff secured some much needed depth on both sides of the football, and the Tide as a result will feature a multitude of new faces up and down the roster in 2026.

Recently, ESPN's Eli Lederman, Max Olson, and Adam Rittenberg released their edition of ranking the offseason for every college football team, with Alabama sitting at No. 7 in the SEC. As part of this, ESPN also listed every team's "what went wrong/right" scenario during the offseason, each of which played a significant role in shaping Alabama's moves at every position.

ESPN named NC State transfer running back Hollywood Smothers flipping his commitment from Alabama to Texas as the Tide’s “what went wrong” moment of the offseason. Smothers was expected to take on the majority of the workload in Alabama’s backfield following his commitment, but the talented running back ultimately decided Texas was the better fit and chose the Longhorns.

As for "what went right," ESPN mentions the fact that Alabama retained a number of key defensive players such as Yhonzae Pierre, Bray Hubbard, and Keon Sabb. Each of Pierre, Hubbard, and Sabb bypassed the NFL draft in order to return to Alabama earlier in the offseason, and add to a loaded defense which also added newcomers such as , Terrance Green, and Caleb Woodson, among others.