He’s not in the top 10 in the SEC in receiving, but Germie Bernard is the league’s most valuable WR
Published:
Scroll through the SEC leaders in receiving and much like 2024, you won’t find a single Alabama receiver in the top 10. You’ll instead find 3 from Tennessee, 2 apiece from Mississippi State and Texas A&M, and 1 each from Oklahoma, Mizzou and Arkansas.
Nowhere on that list will you find household names like Ryan Williams or Cam Coleman, both of whom were preseason first-team All-SEC selections entering Year 2. You’ll instead find 8 former transfers, 7 of which are in Year 1 at their current school.
But there’s a former transfer who, in Year 2 at his current school, has been more valuable than those top 10 SEC leaders in receiving (as well as Williams and Coleman).
Germie Bernard is that dude.
He’s not just that dude because he delivered the game-tying and the go-ahead touchdown when Alabama trailed late at South Carolina, though it certainly confirmed his value. Alabama OC Ryan Grubb called the game-tying touchdown “the Germie Bernard drive” (H/T Yea Alabama). You could say that scheme and South Carolina allowing that rushing score once Bernard got inside the 10-yard line had something to do with his late-game heroics, but you could’ve picked any point in the season to give him that title.
Yeah, you could’ve even said that in the Florida State debacle. Without Bernard, who caught 146 of Ty Simpson’s 254 passing yards, Alabama might’ve lost 31-0. That day, he was the only receiver that Simpson could trust. Since that dreadful start to 2025, Simpson has been surgical with working through his progressions and delivering on-target throws to a variety of targets. It’s at the root of why Bernard’s 526 receiving yards only rank No. 11 in the SEC.
Dig a little deeper into the numbers and you’ll see that’s arguably the least relevant stat to illustrate his value.
Even in a share-the-wealth offense, he’s the go-to guy for Simpson, AKA the guy currently at No. 2 in the Heisman Trophy odds. Bernard’s 58 targets are 10 more than Williams or any other Alabama player. Of equal significance, he only has 1 drop this season compared to 7 for the decorated Williams. But this isn’t really about Bernard vs. Williams and their different strengths and weaknesses (there’s no denying that Williams makes more jaw-dropping plays). It’s about being that steadying force that Alabama needs, especially with a ground game that still hasn’t averaged 4.0 yards per carry against a Power Conference foe.
Bernard is the 1 SEC receiver who would swing multiple games if he got hurt
How does one quantify that, you ask?
Well, he’s got an NFL QB rating of 129.0 when targeted (No. 5 among SEC WRs with at least 30 targets). He’s also been as clutch as it gets. He’s tied for 3rd in the SEC with 8 3rd-down receiving conversions, and in spots in which it’s been just a 7-point margin or less, he’s got 375 scrimmage yards and 7 touchdowns (5 receiving and 2 rushing). Seven scrimmage touchdowns in those spots is remarkable. Just for a little perspective, Jalin Hyatt’s 2022 Biletnikoff Award winning season included 8 touchdowns in those spots.
Bernard isn’t in line to garner hardware like that, and it wouldn’t be surprising if those raw receiving numbers left him off the All-SEC team at the end of the regular season. You likely won’t see Bernard’s 11 scrimmage plays for 20 yards (No. 3 in SEC) cited, nor will you see him honored for his versatility in the Kalen DeBoer/Grubb offense. He’s got 94 rushing yards on 15 carries on the season, 10 of which happened on gap-designed runs. In Bernard’s 3rd year in the offense, DeBoer and Grubb have turned him into the ultimate interchangeable weapon:
- Outside WR: 284 snaps
- Slot WR: 182 snaps
- Backfield: 21 snaps
- QB: 2 snaps
That type of versatility has allowed Alabama to adjust its offense on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes that means playing him predominantly on the outside (he had 54 outside WR snaps at FSU) and other times he means playing him predominantly in the slot (he had 43 slot snaps at Mizzou). And sure, he had nearly a 50-50 split of outside WR snaps to slot snaps in 2024, but he’s already 1 scrimmage touch away from matching his total from last year. When a guy averages 5.1 yards after contact as a runner, well, it makes sense why he continues to get the ball in a variety of ways. The guy is indispensable.
It probably buried the lede to take this long to mention that Bernard’s game-winning rushing touchdown on Saturday happened on a direct snap in which he was tasked with holding onto the ball while faking the misdirection.
Mind you, Alabama was already in field goal range, but any sort of mishandling of that would’ve been devastating, and it would’ve fallen directly on the head coach for being “too cute” in that spot.
In a way, Bernard feels like the one who has been on a mission to do right by DeBoer. Simpson will continue to get all the attention, and understandably so, but he was a Nick Saban recruit. Bernard was the one who opted to leave Michigan State and join DeBoer’s crowded receiver room at Washington in 2023. When he probably could’ve gone anywhere in the country after DeBoer left for Alabama in 2024, Bernard not only followed him to Tuscaloosa, but he stuck around in 2025 instead of starting his NFL career.
DeBoer said after Saturday’s performance that “we’ve got all the trust in the world” in Bernard. It shows. Bernard also looks like he has all the trust in the world in that coaching staff to maximize his unique skill set.
Unlike any of those current 10 SEC leaders in receiving, he’s in Year 3 in his offense. Perhaps we’ll get reminders of that down the stretch for an Alabama team that appears to be in ideal position to claim its 4th SEC title of the 2020s. Of course, this would be the first of its kind for Washington imports like DeBoer and Bernard.
At this time a year ago, Alabama was in desperate need of glue to hold things together. It never quite found that. This time around, Bernard certainly appears to be that all-important glue.
That dude is as valuable as they come.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
