With the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline arriving at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, the preseason’s final week has turned into a survival test for a handful of former Alabama players.
Some are fighting for one last shot. Others are simply trying to stay attached to a team long enough to get another look. Either way, the margin for error is gone, and five Tide alums are sitting right on the edge.
Jam Miller is one of them. His preseason production has looked a lot like what Alabama fans saw from him last year, and that hasn’t been enough to secure one of the 53 spots in New England.
Right now, he’s on the outside looking in with one game left. If the Patriots do move on, the expectation is that the 7th-round draft pick would land on the practice squad, where he could keep working toward a roster spot later in the season.
John Metchie has also been flagged as a player who could be left off the final Carolina roster, but he gave himself a boost in the last preseason game. Against the Panthers’ competition, he turned seven targets into six catches for 77 yards.
He also has Bryce Young in his corner, and that matters. The two built strong chemistry at Alabama, and Young would clearly like to keep Metchie around.
Carolina finishes preseason on Friday against the Houston Texans, the team that drafted Metchie, and another strong outing could help him lock down a place on the 53.
Ronnie Harrison is in a different spot, but the pressure is the same. The former Alabama safety has already made the rounds in the league, spending time with the Jaguars, Browns, Colts and Falcons before signing with the Miami Dolphins in free agency. Now a linebacker, he’s sitting on the cut line in Miami as the deadline approaches.
Chris Braswell’s situation stands out because of where he came from and where he was drafted. A second-round pick by Tampa Bay in the 2024 NFL Draft, he was supposed to be a bigger part of the Bucs’ future.
Instead, ESPN says he’s in danger of getting cut after the preseason. His NFL impact has been limited so far, with just 2.5 sacks across two seasons, and he’s also dealing with an injury.
Braswell didn’t travel to Jacksonville, which means he won’t get the chance to make a final impression before Tampa makes its decisions.
Then there’s Evan Neal, whose path in New York has been rocky from the start. The 7th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft started 27 games in his first three seasons, but the Giants never got the kind of return they were hoping for.
He spent last season as a backup and is now on the roster bubble again. With a new head coach in John Harbaugh, his future feels especially unsettled.
If Neal gets cut, it would close the book on a disappointing run with the Giants, though he would likely get another shot as a backup somewhere else.
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For Alabama, the matchup comes with its own questions because 19-year-old Keelon Russell is set to start at quarterback. Griffis brings significant college experience into the game, while Williams arrives as a former four-star recruit who will be in reserve, so the Tide will be facing a quarterback room with real depth rather than a simple opening-day placeholder. It is the kind of early-season wrinkle that can make a supposedly straightforward opener feel a lot less predictable. [Read more 🡒]
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For Alabama fans, the uneasy part is not the talent question so much as the fit and the timeline. Milroe has the arm strength and athletic profile that made him such an intriguing pro prospect, but his comfort level and overall performance in the NFL are still works in progress. If Seattle decides he is not ready to stick on the 53-man roster, the discussion could quickly shift to whether he lands on the practice squad or becomes a trade possibility, which is hardly the smooth landing spot many imagined for him just a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Just Drew A Hard Line On One SEC Roster Fight
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It also arrives against a backdrop of ongoing legal fights over player eligibility, including cases tied to former players such as Dae'quan Wright and Charles Bediako. Those disputes have kept the line between amateur and professional pathways in the spotlight, and the SEC's latest move only adds another layer to a debate that is still very much alive around how schools build and police their rosters. [Read more 🡒]