At this time last year, Alabama was trying to navigate its defense without some key defenders lost to injury.

Now that the Crimson Tide has seen the return of some of those players with new faces, specifically Dylan Moses and LaBryan Ray and the defensive backs, coach Nick Saban has seen progress at those positions and the unit overall. The Crimson Tide is looking at what amounts to 4 new starters in the defensive backfield.

“I’ve been pleased with the progress that we made, there’s obviously you know areas that we need to continue to improve,” Saban said on Wednesday on the SEC media teleconference. “We certainly need to improve the quality of depth that we have, you know, there but I’ve been pleased with the progress that the guys have made. And it’ll be interesting to see how they respond, you know, in the first game as a group.”

About Moses and Ray, Saban noted their progress.

“They’ve done really well,” Saban said. “They both had really good fall camps and they’re playing well and, you know, we’re just hopeful that they can stay healthy and continue to do that.”

The Crimson Tide are getting set to play Missouri this week to open the season.