Jumbo Package: Who’s Gonna Fill Rid’s Shoes?

Happy Monday everyone. The Eagles are Super Bowl champions, led by a QB who was better built for the college game running up 41 points with a college offense. The hands-down best commercial of this year’s game featured Alabama great Landon Collins in a complementary role. In case you somehow missed it:

Simply hilarious, and on script. Well done, shield.

For a sixth year in a row, an Alabama player won a Super Bowl.

Chance Warmack and the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots, 41-33, in Super Bowl LII on Sunday night.

Warmack replaced starter Stefen Wisniewski at left guard in the third quarter while Wisniewski was on the sideline with an injury. But Wisniewski returned to the field to finish the game. Warmack was also on to block on at least on of Philadelphia’s three field goals.

Hear that, ‘croots? Six consecutive Super Bowl champs have had an Alabama player on the roster. Congrats to Chance, though he may not have won the title if the Pats had the option of pulling Tom Brady in favor of Tua Tagovailoa. Let’s be frank here, Tua probably avoids that strip sack. Curiously, the dynastic Tide and Patriots still have not won a title in the same season.

Congrats to former Tide standout William Vlachos as well, who was hired by Brian Daboll as an offensive assistant for the Buffalo Bills. Vlachos had been working as an analyst for Saban.

Moving on, Marq Burnett takes a look at the returning weapons in the receiving corps.

Luckily for Alabama, wide receivers Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith and Henry Ruggs III received valuable playing time as freshmen and made big plays. They’ll be ready to be full-time starters next season.

Jeudy caught 14 passes for 264 yards and 2 touchdowns. Smith had two-game winning touchdowns, including the remarkable play to win the National Championship Game. He finished the season with 8 catches for 160 yards and 3 touchdowns. Ruggs led the team with 6 touchdown receptions to go with 12 catches for 229 yards.

Coming out of spring, it looked like Jeudy was going to be the Next Big Thing, then Ruggs and Smith showed up at key moments. All three guys have speed and athleticism to burn. So, who do you think will be the top dog next season? Answer the poll and tell us in the comments.

Alabama LB Mack Wilson suffered a horrible family tragedy over the weekend, as his cousin Shaquille Johnson was shot and killed in his home.

Johnson was named 2015 5A-7A football player of the year by the Montgomery Advertiser. At the time of his graduation from Robert E. Lee High School, he held school records in both passing touchdowns (30) and passing yards (3,382).

This is just horrible, and they were apparently close. Condolences to Mack and his family as they deal with a senseless loss of life that is all too common these days.

Alabama’s resounding road victory over Florida has people taking notice of their potential.

Most bracketology experts didn’t update their NCAA Tournament projections over the weekend, but there was a consensus among those that did regarding the Crimson Tide’s status:

Yahoo Sports (Brad Evans): As of Saturday, Alabama was listed as the top No. 9 seed and called a “dangerous team.”

Teamrankings.com: Lists Alabama as having an 80 percent chance of landing a bid, and projects the Crimson Tide to be a No. 9 seed.

HoopsHD.com: Has Alabama a No. 9 seed in the Midwest, facing No. 8 Butler in Detroit.

They have been inconsistent all season, but the Florida game was different. They shortened the playing rotation significantly and the best players on the roster stepped up. Braxton Key seems to be coming along well, and Herb Jones just continues to impress. If the Tide are to make a run this season, the top 5 need to get 30 minutes a game, and John Petty may not be in that group until he diversifies his game a bit beyond streaky three-point marksman.

Saban has had his last chance with recruits to make one last appeal and show them how he feels about them. The dead period is now upon us, and we wait for Wednesday.

This has been weird, y’all.

A top linebacker currently committed to Alabama may end up at Tennessee, but it’s also possible that a highly-ranked linebacker currently committed to the Vols could wind up signing with the Crimson Tide.

Alabama has continued to aggressively pursue four-star Georgia linebacker JJ Peterson. And it’s unclear, even to at least some close to Peterson, whether the top-50 recruit is going to stick with the commitment to Tennessee or sign with the Tide.

A source close to the Alabama program told SEC Country that “we could not take him and we are not sending him scholarship papers.” What he means by “not taking Purdy” is just that the team didn’t want to use a scholarship on him.

That effectively ends the Tide’s search for a quarterback on scholarship in the 2018 class. The only quarterback left this cycle that Alabama has an offer out to is 4-star prospect James Foster, and as of Monday morning, he cannot commit to the Tide. The one thing that needs to be noted is that this could totally change by Wednesday. That’s just how recruiting goes, as teams figure out who is going to end up signing and who isn’t in the final few days before Signing Day.

So, Alabama and Tennessee are fighting over linebackers Quay Walker and J.J. Peterson. Quay is currently committed to Alabama but few think he is coming here, and Peterson is committed to Tennessee, but there are rumblings that he may land in Tuscaloosa. Meanwhile, Alabama offered a couple of quarterbacks scholarships on a contingency basis, apparently content to stand pat at the position in favor of improving numbers elsewhere. The staff must feel confident that all three scholarship passers will remain in the fold for the 2018 campaign. Otherwise, the position will be woefully thin.

The silly season was sillier than ever.

That’s about it for today. Have a great week.

Roll Tide.