Alabama Football: Projecting Tide’s 2-deep depth chart for 2019
By Dakota Cox
Defensive Line
Starting interior: D.J. Dale
Backup: Phidarian Mathis
The battle for starting defensive tackle shows Alabama’s embarrassment of riches. At the start of last season, everyone expected Quinnen Williams to start for at least two years. After an amazing season as a redshirt sophomore, he entered the NFL Draft. Once it became clear that he would be gone, people expected Phidarian Mathis to be his replacement.
However, D.J. Dale has worked his way into the rotation as a freshman, and he got the start with the first team during Alabama’s A-Day game. If Saban gave that much power to a player so young, expect him to deserve it. No matter who the official starter is during the season, expect both Dale and Mathis to be in the rotation.
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Starting ends: Raekwon Davis, LaBryan Ray
Backups: Christian Barmore, Stephon Wynn
Alabama expected to have to replace all of their starting defensive linemen from last year, but they got lucky when Raekwon Davis decided to come back for his senior season. Davis was projected to be a first round selection despite a worse season as a junior. If he gets back to how good he was in his sophomore season, this defensive line has a ton of potential.
Replacing Isaiah Buggs will be LaBryan Ray. The former was a sack master in his senior season with the Tide, so Ray certainly has big shoes to fill. Every expectation is that he is ready to fill that role, and he has the potential to lead the Tide in sacks in 2019. Stephon Wynn and Christian Barmore will certainly add depth to this defensive line, but the rotation will focus heavily on the starters.