There’s a stat that won’t be making it to an Alabama social media graphic anytime soon.

It’s the type of stat that’ll make even the most loyal Tide supporter a bit uneasy. Like, it’s the type of stat that’ll probably make anyone pause and go fact-check it.

Ready? OK. You’ve been warned. It’s bad.

As it stands, Kobe Prentice is Alabama’s lone returning wide receiver who had 150 receiving yards in 2023. Also of note, Prentice had 18 catches for 314 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he only had 4 games with multiple catches.

Yuck.

If you want to include tight ends, CJ Dippre would technically qualify as a returner who had at least 150 receiving yards in 2023, but barely. He had 11 catches for 187 yards and he was held out of the end zone. Dippre was used as a blocker on 65% of the snaps he played while fellow tight end Amari Niblack was used as a receiver on 65% of the snaps that he played. Niblack, however, hit the portal. So did Iron Bowl hero Isaiah Bond, and Jermaine Burton is off to the NFL after an eventful college career.

Jalen Milroe is starting to look like the Will Smith meme from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Dare I say, Milroe will have much more company by season’s end. And hey, I’ll go one step forward. The Tide wideouts, assuming that several additions are coming, will be a significant upgrade over this year’s group.

Bold? Eh, depending on how you look at it.

If you look at it through the lens of “Alabama only has 1 returning wide receiver who had more than 150 receiving yards in 2023,” yeah, it’s bold, especially when I have no idea what the post-spring portal market will look like.

If you look at it through the lens of “Washington just had arguably the best receiver room in America with Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb,” it’s not so bold.

(Relax, LSU fans. I said “arguably.”)

Grubb and DeBoer are coming from a Washington program where they coached 3 receivers who were better than Alabama’s top wideout. The numbers prove that, and when all 3 come off the board in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft before a Tide pass-catcher, it’ll only add to that notion.

Let’s not pretend that the likes of Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan were all destined for stardom before DeBoer and Grubb arrived in Seattle. Here was what that trio produced in 2021:

  • Odunze: 41 catches, 415 yards, 4 TDs
  • McMillan: 39 catches, 470 yards, 3 TDs
  • Polk: 5 catches, 114 yards, 1 TD

By the way, in addition to DeBoer and Grubb coming to Alabama from Washington, so did receivers coach JaMarcus Sheppard, offensive line coach of the Joe Moore Award winners Scott Huff and tight ends coach Nick Sheridan. That’s significant.

There’s the obvious elephant in the room — Milroe isn’t Michael Penix Jr. At all. Both of them struggled against that Michigan defense on consecutive Monday nights in the Playoff, but that might be about the only thing they have in common. They don’t even throw with the same hand.

Compromise will be needed to make Alabama’s new offense work. Milroe attempted 28 passes once all season while Penix attempted 28 passes in every game he played against FBS competition at Washington. But the DeBoer/Grubb offense is more flexible than the Mike Leach Air Raid. At Fresno State in 2017-18, a Jake Haener-led DeBoer/Grubb offense averaged 31 pass attempts per game. One would think that Milroe will be closer to that than the 40 attempts per game that Penix averaged in the last 2 seasons.

This should still be, in theory, a pass-friendly offense. One would think that the post-spring transfer portal window is going to be a feeding frenzy for Alabama to try and add some established pass-catchers. It has to be. It was in the post-spring window when Alabama added Jameson Williams in 2021. It was also Bryce Young, not Milroe, who was throwing him passes.

Williams came to Alabama because he was buried on the depth chart at Ohio State, which had Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Alabama was trying to replace its version of that with DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle off to the NFL. Williams became an immediate star even though he didn’t get a full offseason of reps.

Milroe’s go-to target may be in a similar spot. It’s not even worth speculating who that could be.

Just kidding. It’s totally worth speculating.

Related: North Carolina sports betting is coming to the Tar Heel state with many sportsbooks entering the state including FanDuel North Carolina, DraftKings and more.

I know that Xavier Restrepo is coming back to Miami and the Canes just picked up Cam Ward, but if you told me that guy was hitting the post-spring portal, that guy would work wonders in the slot in the DeBoer/Grubb offense. Alternatively, if new Alabama DC Kane Wommack could get his former South Alabama star Caullin Lacy to flip from Louisville to Alabama, I’d be talking about a top-5 receiver in the SEC. The most realistic option might be versatile former Washington receiver Germie Bernard, who had 738 all-purpose yards (419 receiving yards) in that deep aforementioned receiver room and entered the portal on Monday.

We don’t know who the future targets will be. We do know that the sell for a portal receiver is obvious.

Even if you’re still a skeptic of Milroe as a passer, how can you not be intrigued by the opportunity to step into an immediate role in a DeBoer/Grubb offense? That’ll be a sell, especially if Alabama’s roster continues to lose pieces during this 30-day window wherein anyone can hit the portal.

Even if there aren’t splashy additions, now is the time to buy stock in the Alabama receivers who stayed. Kendrick Law and Jalen Hale only ran 106 and 76 routes, respectively, but one would think that’ll change if they stick around with Alabama’s top 3 leaders in receiver snaps gone. They should, in theory, get a head start on any potential portal additions. The same goes for Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and Jaren Hamilton.

As daunting as Alabama’s reality is in a post-Nick Saban world, opportunities await. They likely would’ve been there even without the coaching staff change, but now, there are even more opportunities with the staff that led the nation’s most prolific passing attack.

After consecutive years of disappointing showings from the Alabama receivers, the — wait for it — Tide should be changing.

Expect that to be coming to an Alabama social media graphic near you in 2024.