Alabama’s tight end room is entering the season with a different look, and the players inside it know the job of replacing Josh Cuevas won’t fall on just one set of shoulders.
Cuevas, the Crimson Tide’s leading tight end, is gone to the 2026 NFL Draft, leaving behind a clear leadership gap and a fair amount of uncertainty about what this group will become. But when sophomore tight ends Marshall Pritchett and Kaleb Edwards spoke at Alabama’s in-house media day Saturday, they made it clear the room has already started building its own identity during fall camp.
“It’s been amazing,” Edwards said. “It’s been a grind, but it's been fun.”
Pritchett painted an even fuller picture of the atmosphere around the team, saying the first week of camp has been “a blast”.
“I love this team that we have,” he said. “I think we’re so close as a unit, offense and defense.
Obviously, incredibly competitive when we go out there. It’s a war every day, but when we get to the locker room, dude, it’s like I’m hanging out with my bestest friends in the world.”
Without Cuevas, leadership has become more of a shared responsibility. Edwards said the room has handled that shift together.
“I think all of us have stepped up a little bit now that we don’t have that true senior leader,” Edwards said.
Pritchett singled out third-year tight end Jay Lindsey for the way he has carried himself through camp.
“He’s an incredible leader in our room,” Pritchett said. “Very knowledgeable guy, and I think his impact kind of speaks for our whole tight end room.”
The group has also been shaped by Oklahoma State transfer Josh Ford, whose arrival has brought a style both players clearly appreciate. Pritchett gave him a simple label.
“The only way to describe Josh is a dog,” Pritchett said. “Josh is an old-school football player. He’s a great kid, and every single day we go out to practice, you know you’re gonna get everything he’s got.”
Edwards pointed to Ford’s voice and edge as traits that stand out.
“He speaks up for us,” Edwards said. “He’s just a great dude. He lifts us up, tells us what we’re doing wrong and helps us out.”
Replacing the production Cuevas brought to last year’s offense, they said, will require the whole room working together. Pritchett explained that the group’s variety is part of what makes it work.
“We all have kind of different skill sets, and I think that’s what makes us such a close unit,” he said. “I go out there as the receiving tight end, like if Jay wants some advice on how to run a better route, I can give him that. But when I go, and I gotta block pass pro, I know I can go up to Jay and ask him about the footwork he takes, the hand stuff he takes, same with Kaleb, same with Josh.”
For all the competition in the room, Pritchett said the bigger theme is mutual support.
“That’s the difference in our room,” Pritchett said. “Although we’re incredibly competitive, it’s a big help-each-other-out kind of environment, because we all want to eat.”
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