The Extra Point: Evaluating the Impact of Alabama Football’s Top Transfers

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Spring football is here and the Alabama Crimson Tide are starting new and preparing for the 2022 season with the goal of competing for another national title.

Alabama has become accustomed to losing talented and key players after every season and quickly having to find new faces to step into those roles and make a similar impact. This year is no different.

Jermaine Burton, Eli Ricks, and Jahmyr Gibbs are three new faces who have come to Tuscaloosa via the transfer portal and have already proven they can play at a high level and will now look to step into those big roles this season for the Crimson Tide.

Burton is a name Crimson Tide fans should be familiar with as he came over from the Georgia Bulldogs after winning the national championship last season. He spent two years playing wide receiver for the Bulldogs and amassed a total of 53 receptions for 901 yards and eight touchdowns during his time there. However, with Georgia’s offensive style, many felt Burton was underutilized and that that may have played a big factor in his decision to transfer to Alabama.

Now, Burton will seek to follow in the footsteps of Jameson Williams, a former transfer from Ohio State, and become Alabama’s top receiver and Bryce Young’s favorite target. His experience and maturity will be important in Alabama’s young wide receiver room.

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Eli Ricks is another transfer from within the SEC as he comes to the Crimson Tide after two years playing for the LSU Tigers. Ricks established himself as one of the best cornerbacks in the SEC while in Baton Rouge and was named Second Team All-SEC as a freshman.

With the departures of Josh Jobe and Jaylen Armour-Davis, Alabama has a hole at the cornerback spot and Ricks will look to step in and fill it. Ricks and Kool-Aid McKinstry project to be the starting corners this season and could prove to be one of the best duos in the country.

Perhaps the most interesting transfer to watch is former Georgia Tech running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Gibbs is a versatile player who was an integral part of the Yellow Jackets offense last season in which he rushed for 746 yards on 143 carries and caught 36 passed for 470 yards. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound running back has a lot of potential and seems to have impressed head coach Nick Saban who called him “a very good addition to our team.”

With a little more than five months to go before the start of the 2022 season, Burton, Ricks, and Gibbs, will look to use that time to establish their roles and position themselves for breakout seasons in 2022.

Check out the video at the top of the page where BamaCentral’s Clay Miller and Tony Tsoukalas discuss the impact that Jermaine Burton, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Eli Ricks will have on the Alabama football team.