Alabama Football: 5 things to watch during 2019 A-Day game

2. Mixing and Matching on the Offensive Line

The first group for Alabama’s offensive line during the last scrimmage looked like this, from left to right:

Alex Leatherwood, Evan Neal, Chris Owens, Emil Ekiyor, Jedrick Wills.

There’s a decent chance that’s the starting group when Alabama takes the field for the season opener against Duke in Atlanta. They’ve looked good together so far, but the mixing and matching is far from over.

The only assured spots at this point are Leatherwood and Wills at left and right tackle. Leatherwood started at right guard last season and has now shifted back to his natural position of tackle after the departure of Jonah Williams. Wills was dominant as the right tackle last season.

The interior spots are all up for grabs. Redshirt junior Deonte Brown started several games at left guard last season prior to an injury, but he will be suspended for the first four games of next season, and his spot among the starters is far from guaranteed once his suspension is over.

Redshirt junior Chris Owens and redshirt freshman Emil Ekiyor are competing at center, with the loser of that battle shifting over to one of the guard spots for at least the first four games until Brown gets back into action.

Five-star freshman Evan Neal has impressed enough already to be working with the first team in his first spring practice. He has been rotating with Brown at left guard, with the initial plan seeming to be to plug him in for the first few games. If he performs well, then Brown might be a reserve for the rest of the season.

During the last scrimmage, Wills sprained his ankle. X-rays were negative, but nonetheless his spring is over and he won’t play in the A-Day game. That will allow for even more mixing and matching. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Neal get some reps at right tackle with that being his more natural position. As of now, senior Matt Womack has taken over at Wills’ position. Womack started the majority of the 2017 season at right tackle before getting hurt and not being able to wrestle the job away from Wills last year.

There’s a lot of talent on the Tide’s offensive line, and the potential is there for this unit to be even better than last season, even after losing a pair of All Americans in Williams and center Ross Pierschbacher.