Top Tide players declare for draft
The Sugar Bowl was the last game for Bryce Young, Will Anderson Jr. and Brian Branch in an Alabama football uniform. All three have declared for the 2023 NFL draft.
Young, the junior quarterback, is listed as the No. 2 player on ESPN’s draft prospect rankings.
Anderson, an edge rusher, is ranked by ESPN’s Mel Kiper as the No. 2 prospect on his 2023 big board published in late December.
“One of the best edge rushers I’ve scouted in the past decade,” Kiper wrote about Anderson in November.
Anderson, a junior, has played three seasons for Alabama and will leave as one of the best pass rushers in program history. He became the first two-time unanimous All-American in the history of Alabama’s program. Anderson is also the first defender to be a back-to-back unanimous All-American since Tennessee’s Eric Berry in 2007-2008.
The ESPN player rankings for the draft rank Branch as the No. 16 player overall and the No. 1 safety.
Young will exit his career in Tuscaloosa as one of the most iconic quarterbacks to play for the Crimson Tide. He is the first to have won the Heisman Trophy.
During the 2021 season in which he won college football’s most prestigious award, Young set the program’s singleseason record for passing yards with 4,872 and touchdowns with 47. His efforts in his first season as a starter won the Crimson Tide the SEC championship and earned Alabama a spot in the College Football Playoff championship game, where it lost to Georgia.
Young accounted for 50 total touchdowns in his sophomore season and 36 in his junior year. Both are in the top four all time for Alabama players.
He’s second all time for passing yards in the program with 8,356 over three years. AJ McCarron has the record: 9,019 passing yards from 2010 to 2013. Young’s 80 touchdown passes are second only to Tua Tagovailoa’s 87.
Known for his ability to make plays, particularly because of his ability to evade pressure, Young put together no shortage of highlights. His best moment might have been when he led Alabama on a 97-yard drive with only 1:35 left in regulation in the 2021 Iron Bowl against Auburn. The Crimson Tide hadn’t been able to do much offensively all day, but Young found a way to lead the offense down the field and threw a perfect touchdown pass to Ja’Corey Brooks to force overtime. Young’s efforts kept Alabama alive in the game as well as its CFP chances.
Young’s performance in the SEC championship game against No. 1 Georgia also won’t easily be forgotten. Facing a defense that had given up only 6.92 points per game all season, Young shined.
He completed 26 of 44 pass attempts
for 421 yards and three TDs with no interceptions. Young also rushed for a TD.
In his second season as a starter in 2022, he had to deal with a shoulder injury he sustained in the Arkansas game. Young also didn’t have the same cast of supporting characters around him, which made his job more challenging.
Still, Young managed to throw a touchdown in every game he played and still made some spectacular plays. He threw multiple touchdowns in all but three games. One of those was the Arkansas game in which he didn’t even play a full half.
Young finished the 2022 season with 3,328 yards, 32 touchdowns and five interceptions over 12 games but really only played 11.5 as he left the Arkansas game with the injury before halftime.
In the Sugar Bowl, he passed for 321 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions against Kansas State.