Alabama Crimson Tide fall camp previews: Secondary

Football is back in the air. Alabama is set to kick off its fall camp today as it holds its first practice. Before the Crimson Tide returns to the field, BamaInsider will take a look at each of the position groups. We continue our series by examining the secondary positions.

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Last season, Nick Saban referred to Shyheim Carter as a “Jack of all trades,” while noting the defensive back can line up at every position of the secondary. Alabama’s secondary this season will likely hinge on where the head coach decides to insert the senior.

Carter is Alabama’s highest-graded returner after earning an 88.4 mark from Pro Football Focus last season. Serving as the Star out of the nickel package, the 6-foot 191-pound defensive back finished tied for second on the team with 10 pass deflections and two interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns.

Carter knows Alabama’s defense perhaps better than any player on the team, making him a natural fit to man the Star position again. However, the early departure of Deionte Thompson created a hole at safety next to Xavier McKinney. Carter was limited this spring due to a sports hernia injury but was seen spending time with the safeties during practice. Now that he’s back to 100 percent, it will be interesting to watch where Alabama lines him up this fall.

If Carter does indeed make the switch to safety, he would likely be replaced by either Trevon Diggs or Patrick Surtain II at Star. That domino effect could lead to Josh Jobe landing a starting role at cornerback. It’s worth noting Saban spoke highly of the sophomore not too long ago at SEC Media Days.

“Josh Jobe has made a tremendous amount of improvement and has matured very nicely,” Saban said. “And we view him as a guy that is a potential starter and a guy that is playing in a way that, throughout the spring, that we have confidence that if he’s a starter, he can be very successful, and we can be very successful with him playing corner for us.”