INDIANAPOLIS — One of the reasons Alabama has had so many outstanding defensive backs during Nick Saban’s tenure is the simple fact that Alabama has also had a ton of great receivers during Nick Saban’s tenure. For multi-position DBs such as Shyheim Carter and Xavier McKinney, their times with the Crimson Tide was defined in part by the requirements to cover Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III. Not an easy thing, which is why Carter said flat-out during his Friday media session that no other receivers gave him more headaches than his own.
“The receivers at our school,” he said. “Man, it’s hard. It’s definitely hard. But they bring out the best in you every day. You really have to be on your Ps and Qs. You can never take a play off, or you’ll get beaten for a touchdown. Then, it’s the band playing in the background. It’s great going against those guys every day. You get a chance to showcase your talent in practice, and then you do it in a game, and for me, the practices were harder than the games. Then, there are 100,000 people in the stadium, and you’re just out there playing. Practice is like, that’s where you really play the game.”
And then, if you do get beaten on a play, there’s the inevitable jawing. Followed by the inevitable Nick Saban yelling. Not a pleasant experience.
“Oh, yeah. It’s a great competition. When the receivers beat us, or we shut the receivers down, they talk a little bit. Coach Saban, he really doesn’t like that. He’ll get on everyone about that.”
Getting beaten, or hearing the talk? Which doesn’t Saban like?
“He doesn’t like either, actually. He coaches hard. If you get beat on a technique, you’d better do it the right way next time. But if we’re like, jawing at each other? He definitely gets on us.”
With that in mind, I asked both Carter and McKinney for scouting reports on Jeudy, the premier route-runner in this draft class, and Ruggs, who is clearly the No. 1 speed-burner.
Carter on Jeudy: “Oh, man… quick-twitch guy, he’ll get in and out of his breaks, and you can never really tell when he’s getting in and out of his breaks. It all looks the same. He’s just a really hard guy to cover. You’ve definitely got to be on your Ps and Qs on every play. Even when it’s a run, he’ll do a great job of selling the double-move, selling the play-action. Yeah, he’s just fast.”
So with him, I asked, the hardest thing is that you don’t really know what you’re getting off the line based off what he does. What his release is.
“Yeah, it’s definitely hard.”
What about Ruggs,” I asked Carter. We know he’s fast.
“Obviously, yeah,” Carter said with a laugh. “But he’ll go up and make the contested catches; he’ll definitely come down with it. He’ll get in and out of his breaks really well, too. He’s so fast – with guys like that, you try to deny them the ball as much as you can, because if he gets the ball in his hands, he can go.
He’ll take a screen and just house it whenever he wants, I said.
“Right, exactly.”
“That was a great group of receivers,” McKinney said when asked about that particular challenge. “Going into the NFL, that will really help me improve, knowing that I played against a lot of good receivers during my time at ‘Bama.”
McKinney on Jeudy: “Fast. Quick. Runs good routes. Can catch the ball. A good all-around receiver. That’s somebody that… I faced him every day in practice, and he’s a nightmare. I’ll tell you that. Being able to practice against him has made me better in so many ways. It’s sharpened me and helped me improve my game. I’ve also helped him improve his game, so being able to face a guy like Jerry, it’s been nothing but a blessing.
What about Ruggs? “Man, all of those guys. I’d face them every day in practice. We’d go two-on-two slot coverage, and those are the guys I want to go against, continuously. Those guys, and then [receiver Jaylen] Waddle… just knowing that those guys would make me better is something that I like. I like competing, and you want to go against those guys as much as you can.”
Both Jeudy and Ruggs project to be high first-round talents in the NFL. McKinney does as well, and while Carter might be more of a third-day guy, there’s no question that these turf wars every day in practice made everyone involved better players.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”