Alabama OL Jaeden Roberts’ status revealed for Week 1 vs. Florida State
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Alabama offensive lineman Jaeden Roberts will be available on Saturday when the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide travel to Tallahassee to battle Florida State.
On Friday, the school’s NIL arm, Yea Alabama, made the announcement that Roberts had been officially cleared to play. Roberts missed a large chunk of fall camp for Alabama while going through concussion protocol.
At his press conference on Monday, coach Kalen DeBoer said Roberts was still a question but was making progress toward a return. On the weekly SEC media call on Wednesday, DeBoer said that Roberts had not taken any team reps yet.
Roberts missed both of Alabama’s fall scrimmages, and Geno VanDeMark filled in at right guard in his absence. There was a thought VanDeMark would need to be called on for the opener, and that might still be the case given the lack of practice time Roberts has had in the run-up to the new season. When healthy, Roberts is the presumed starting right guard. Whether that will actually be the case on Saturday, now that he’s officially cleared to play, remains to be seen.
If Roberts does move into the right guard slot, the expectation is that VanDeMark would kick over to left guard and Texas A&M transfer Kam Dewberry would be the first man off the bench.
Roberts started 12 times at right guard for the Crimson Tide last season. The 6-foot-5 redshirt senior has 21 total starts over the last 2 seasons with the program.
Alabama will also be without running back Jam Miller and defensive lineman Tim Keenan for the game.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC between Alabama and Florida State. The Crimson Tide are a 14-point favorite, according to the latest odds from BetMGM.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
