After losing Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Harrison, Levi Wallace, Anthony Averett, Tony Brown and others this offseason, the Alabama secondary is in a total rebuild mode ahead of 2018.

New players are going to have to step up if the Tide are going to compete for another national championship this fall, and on Saturday, fans got their first look at that unit.

Following the A-Day scrimmage, coach Nick Saban said he liked what he saw from the secondary, complimenting several of the new defensive backs (via 247Sports):

“I think that everyone improved,” Saban said. “Trevon (Diggs) had a really good spring, Xavier McKinney had a really good spring. Deionte (Thompson) was solid in the two games that he played (last season) and he was solid this spring. Saivion (Smith) made a lot of improvement. I still think he’s not quite sure on what he’s doing all the time, but the fact that he was here this semester and this spring probably was a really good thing for him. Shyheim Carter made a lot of progress.

“So, these guys made a lot of progress. Jared Mayden made a lot of progress and did a nice job. Now, he played with the twos today, but he’s played with the ones some. So, those six guys — past that, we need to make a significant improvement in the players that we have and the guys that we’re bringing in.”

Who ends up winning starting jobs this fall remains to be seen, but the Crimson Tide have plenty of options.

Losing players like the ones listed above will hurt, obviously, but Alabama recruits well and has the kinds of athletes most other programs can only dream of. It might take a few games for the unit to come together this fall, but Saban will have his secondary in order when all is said and done.