Top 5 returning Alabama Crimson Tide football players on offense

The Alabama Crimson Tide will open up fall camp on August 2nd and before the pads start popping, we look at the top five graded out offensive players by Pro-Football Focus from last season. Pro-Football Focus which is made up of former NFL coaches and scouts provides in-depth player assessments and grades after each game. Below are the highest-graded offensive players returning for the Tide going into the 2019 season.

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Receiver

Junior

Offensive Grade last season: 75.0

Over the last two seasons, DeVonta Smith has hauled in 50 receptions for 853-yards with nine touchdowns. As a sophomore in 2018, he recorded 42 receptions for 693-yards with six touchdowns and had a season graded out of 75.0. Smith was targeted all over the field, he caught seven receptions under 10-yards to the outside left, he caught for 192-yards over the middle of the field and recorded 160-yards to the outside right.

We written about before, Smith is a very underrated receiver, and while the media members and opposing defenses might forget about him, the Crimson Tide has always made sure to implement Smith in the weekly game plan.

Receiver

Junior

Offensive Grade last season: 86.8

The returning Biletnikoff Award winner from the 2018 season mentioned during SEC Media Days that he’s working on his fundamentals going into his junior season. That is a scary fact if you’re a cornerback lining up to face Jeudy this season. Last year, Jeudy caught for 68-receptions for 1,315-yards with 14 touchdowns and his per catch average was 19.3.

Grade wise, Jeudy shined all year long and the numbers showed that Tagovailoa liked hitting Jeudy across the middle of the field as Jeudy caught for 865-yards between the numbers. 372 of those yards came from passes thrown over 20-yards.

Receiver

Sophomore

Offensive Grade last season: 89.7

The Crimson Tide returns an incredible receiving corps to the 2019 season and while three of the projected starters at the position are all juniors, the highest-graded receiver from last season is Jaylen Waddle who will just be a sophomore this season. As a true freshman in 2018, Waddle caught for 45 receptions for 848-yards with seven touchdowns and enters this season selected to the preseason All-SEC first team and is also listed on the Biletnikoff Award watch list.

Where Waddle was targeted most last season was across the middle of the field over 10-yards as he caught for eight receptions for 236-yards with two touchdowns between the numbers. His blend of exceptional speed, crisp route running, and excellent hands make him one of the most feared offensive players in the nation.

Running Back

Junior

Offensive Grade last season: 90.6

While Harris did not receive an overwhelming amount of touches last season, he still managed to showcase his talent rushing for 783-yards off 117 attempts. It also seemed as though that Harris played better and better as the season moved forward and against Clemson in the national title game, you could argue that Harris played his best game of the season. Against the Tigers, Harris recorded 59 hard-fought yards off nine attempts and his rushing grade was 79.0, which is very commendable considering Clemson’s defense had the highest graded rush defense in the nation at 96.8 per game.

With Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs now exited from the program, there should be plenty more opportunities for Harris to show why he’s one of the best running backs in all of college football.

Quarterback

Junior

Offensive Grade last season: 90.8

Last season Tagovailoa not only posted incredible season numbers throwing for 3,966-yards with 43 touchdowns, but he also graded out as one of the top quarterbacks in the country weekly by PFF. When we go inside the numbers, Tagovailoa’s passing directional chart was mind-blowing when passing the football over 20-yards downfield. To the outside left Tagovailoa graded out at 94.8, between the numbers he graded out at 92.5, and to the outside right he graded out at 96.7. For comparison sake, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence had a grade of 83.6 to the outside left when throwing 20-yards downfield, had an exceptional grade of 95.4 between the numbers, and a grade of 91.3 to the outside right.

Where we see Tagovailoa’s grade drop is when he faced pressure. His grade under pressure for the entire season was 74.5. Here is a look at Tagovailoa’s offensive grade against higher caliber defenses from a season ago: 50.7 against Mississippi State, 75.4 against Auburn, 40.7 against Georgia, and 66.4 against Clemson. While Tagovailoa has more than an arsenal of weapons returning around him, there are plenty of skeptics in college football that still want to see what he can do when facing constant pressure for 60 minutes.

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Kyle Henderson is the managing editor of BamaInsider.com. E-mail him at Kyle@Bamainsider.com