Meet Alabama Football’s 2025 new recruits: Receivers and Tight Ends

From Julio Jones to Jameson Williams, Alabama had a historic run of wide receiver talent throughout the entirety of Nick Saban’s tenure, and that’s only continuing with the arrival of Ryan Williams last season. With Ryan Grubb taking over at offensive coordinator and Alabama breaking in a new QB, there’s a good chance there will be significantly more targets to go around in 2025 than there was in 2023-2024, and so while the Tide’s top receivers are set in stone, there will be opportunities for some new players to see the field.

At tight end, both CJ Dippre and Robbie Ouzts have graduated and are going out for the NFL, so the position is wide open going into 2025.

As always, I’ll be using the 247 Sports Composite for player rankings, but will note any stark differences of opinion from any of the recruiting services.

Lotzeir Brooks

Brooks is an interesting one. After putting up four straight seasons of unbelievable production (4514 receiving yards and 65 receiving touchdowns), he holds virtually every New Jersey state record. He’s drawn player comparisons to Zay Flowers, Jaylen Waddle, and Tyreek Hill due to his size and tremendous speed. On3 jumped on the hype train behind him a year ago, and they have him as the #72 overall prospect and the #11 receiver in the class, and ESPN feels similarly. On the other hand, Rivals and 247 both have Brooks as a 3-star prospect. It’s a stark difference in opinions, and one that’ll be an interesting comparison to look back on in 3 years.

He’s been reported to run a 4.40s forty yard dash and clocked at 22.1 mph, so he’s got upper tier elite speed, even if he lacks size.

Playstyle

The shades of Jaylen Waddle in this guy are legitimate. He speed is next-level on the field, and his ability to jump to high point downfield catches despite his size is eerily similar.

He excels at at the start-stop movements and can send cornerbacks flying the wrong way as he rockets off the line of scrimmage and stops on a dime for a curl route, then will accelerate again once he has the ball and shoot past 2-3 more defenders who all should have had the angle on him to easily make the tackle. That kind of speed and acceleration alone makes him a special player, and has impressive hands and body control in the air really put him a step above.

On the other hand, he’s extremely unpolished before the catch. His route running is mostly either streak routes, screens, or 15 yard curls, and he was rarely ever pressed at the line of scrimmage. He shows the ability to be dangerous on double moves with how well he runs those deep curls, but thus far, hasn’t really done much of it.

Still, with the ball in his hands, he’s going to be one of the most dangerous players on the field and could score from anywhere.

Scheme Fit and Prediction

While mostly viewed as a slot receiver due to his size, I think Saban and DeBoer (as well as the NFL) have all shown that a small size doesn’t necessarily mean slot. With his ability downfield, I think Brooks will be more of a guy that will move between receiver positions to get good matchups and to get him the ball in his hands.

With the talent returning at WR for Alabama in 2025, I don’t expect us to see Brooks play too much. Still, I think he’ll get some snaps and a few catches in the cupcake games. I also think he’ll make a push from day 1 to be a kick or punt returner, and there’s a very good chance he could win one of those jobs as a freshman.

Derek Meadows

Meadows is pretty much the opposite of Brooks in almost every way. He’s extremely tall at 6’5”, he has limited production so far, and 247 views him as the #60 overall prospect, while On3 and ESPN put him lower than 200.

He hails from the powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School and has multiple track and field accolades under his belt, including the Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year for his performance in the hurdles and relay. He only caught 39 passes for a shade under 1000 yards in his junior and senior years combined, so there’s a lot of projecting here on his crazy high athletic upside.

Playstyle

Meadows could be the next DK Metcalf or Mike Evans. He’s got impressive speed for his size and a nasty outside release against press coverage, and he can really win routes by getting vertical down the sideline. He’s also adept at moving around after a play breaks down to get himself into a spot where his QB can use him as a security throw. Those two things combined make him an absolute nightmare in the endzone.

With such a limited number of touches, though, he’s mostly an unknown with the ball in his hands or really working many routes other than the sideline fades.

He’s also a very aggressive downfield blocker, to the point of pushing many of his blocks just up to edge of going too far and getting close to getting in some scuffles. Still, I think most coaches would rather tell a guy to tone it back a little than have to try to get them to tone it up in the blocking department.

Scheme Fit and Production

Were this still a Nick Saban team, I’d be worried about his fit, as Saban never did seem to figure out what to do with the tall sideline receivers. However, Ryan Grubb had multiple similarly sized pass catchers at Washington in 2023 and also coached DK Metcalf in 2024 in Seattle, so I think he’ll have a decent plan on what to do with him.

I think 2025 will be a redshirt year for Meadows. There’s too much returning talent at WR, and he’s got too far to go in terms of development, so we can reconvene on him in 2026 or 2027.

Isaiah Horton

After a couple of seasons working his way up the depth chart, Isaiah Horton broke out as a starter for the Miami Hurricanes in 2024, catching 56 passes for 616 yards and 5 TDs, and he’s now joining Alabama to be the presumed third WR and will have two seasons of eligibility to go.

Because I am shameless, here is a great bit of content from Chase Goodbread last month giving some tape breakdown on Horton:

There’s a lot of quotes out there from Miami teammates and his coaches about his work ethic, character, and smarts, so he seems like a slam dunk of a new addition to the squad.

Playstyle

Horton’s 6’4” frame might indicate he’d be a sideline fade specialist, but Miami only threw a couple of those to him last season (though he did catch them). Instead, he specialized in a lot of middle-of-field routes: slants, posts, and digs. He’s got a nice array of releases off the line of scrimmage and excels at getting a defender outside of him before cutting inside, and he’ll use his huge frame to be able to nab catches even with a defender coming over his back.

He’s pretty much a black hole at WR – throw an inaccurate ball in his vicinity, and he’ll swallow it up for a catch anyway. It makes him a highly dependable security blanket for his QB, and when it came to critical situations, Miami routinely went right to him on slant routes. His soft hands and long arms make him a great pure catcher of the ball.

On top of that, he’s incredibly consistent at making those hands catches, tucking the ball in quickly, and hanging on to it while absorbing hits. Essentially, he’s a custom-built move-the-sticks 3rd down receiver that can make his QB look really good.

That said, he doesn’t offer too much in terms of getting yards after catch, nor has he really capitalized on his length to become a deep ball threat. Those likely aren’t going to be areas he’s going to develop either.

Finally, as Goodbread noted above, his blocking was downright bad, so that’s going to need some work.

Scheme Fit and Prediction

Horton is most likely going to be part of the main trio of starters with Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. I think Bernard is mostly going to be in the slot, but Horton is certainly capable of playing there, and all three receivers will likely rotate around. Horton should be the designated guy on slants and across the middle, while Williams and Bernard will likely be targeted more downfield and on screens.

I think he’ll be second on the team in catches and third in yards this year, and we’ll be discussing whether he’ll be an early departure for the NFL in about 10 months.

Marshall Pritchett

Pritchett was originally a QB and then a big wide receiver who’s been working to become a tight end over the last year, and wound up with 844 receiving yards, a Conference Player of the Year award, and a championship to boot. He’s bulked up from 211 to 228 over the past season, and enrolled early at Alabama, stating he plans to play at 240 this upcoming year.

He broke his collarbone in January during the All-American game, so his status is still unknown for spring practice.

Playstyle

Pritchett is, first and foremost, a receiving threat. He’s exceptional as a matchup-nightmare out of the slot, as his speed can just outrun linebackers to the sidelines on his favorite out-n-up route, but if corners try to cover him, he’ll post up with a 10-yard inside curl and box them out. He’s got a massive catch radius and excels at winning high-point balls and contested catches, and has a trio of game-sealing catches in big moments in his senior season. Throw the ball to him, and he’s going to come down with it – usually in a dominating fashion.

As a route runner, he’s surprisingly nimble and has a variety of routes out of the slot that aren’t just the usual seam routes and curls that I usually see from high school tight ends. He can pull off wheels, out and ups, slants, and even some flag routes to get open.

With the ball in his hands, he could make a few guys miss at the high school level and broke his fair share of tackles. I don’t think it’s going to be a forte of his in college, but he might slip a tackle every few catches or so.

His biggest issue in college is going to be blocking. He’s more than willing, but most of his blocks are lunging attacks that, while they pancaked his high school opponents, will lead to him putting himself on the ground against SEC athletes. He also has pretty much 0 experience as an in-line blocker.

Scheme Fit and Prediction

If this were still a Nick Saban team, I’d be pretty certain that Pritchett would be a redshirt player this year. However, with Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb, there might be more of an inclination to play a highly talented pass-catcher who has a ways to go as a blocker. I don’t think Pritchett is a starter or even a regular contributor or anything, but could he rotate in as a 4th TE later in the season and get a few packaged targets? I could definitely see it.

Kaleb Edwards

As one of the only players in this recruiting class to not enroll early, Edwards won’t be on campus until this summer and will be playing a bit of catch up. Still, he was one of Kalen DeBoer’s earliest recruiting targets and is one of the best true in-line TEs in the country in this class. He was viewed as a highly athletic (19.64 mph speed) blocking specialist going into his senior year, but really turned things on with 44 catches for 729 yards and 9 TDs in his final year.

Playstyle

Edwards is huge, and he has way more acceleration than someone his size has any right to have. He tops out on the long speed, but for that first 5 yards, he can go from 0 to full speed in a single step. It’s impressive to watch. That level of explosiveness often gets him open quickly on seam routes or some quick out routes, and he’s got natural, consistent hands and can hold on to the ball while getting undercut, so there’s a lot to like there.

He’s a bit of a nightmare with the ball in his hands, too. It’s almost a bull-in-a-china-shop type of running, but it’s effective. When he catches it, he plants and rockets up field and will start bouncing off tacklers (or they bounce off him?) and always picks up 5 more yards than it seems like he should be able to.

As a blocker, Edwards often lines up on the line of scrimmage as an extension of the offensive line, and he can drive block as good as any offensive tackle, often walking his guy straight backwards right off the line. He also has experience pass blocking, and is adept at selling the pass block before spinning around to catch the dump-off screen.

Essentially, he’s a well-rounded tight end already and has the athleticism and size to back it up.

Scheme Fit and Prediction

Edwards will definitely be an in-line tight end, and I think this summer he’ll be right in the thick of the competition with Danny Lewis to win the starting job beside Josh Cuevas. While him not starting until summer may slow his progress a little, I think he’ll wind up a regular part of the rotation all season, if not outright winning the starting job.