Alabama football opened the 2026 season with exactly the kind of performance Kalen DeBoer wanted to see.
The Crimson Tide rolled past East Carolina 48-10 on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, piling up 487 yards of offense while holding the Pirates to just 162 total yards. Alabama also ran for 227 yards after finishing near the bottom of the SEC in rushing last season.
The final score tells one story.
But the early Pro Football Focus grades and snap counts provide some additional context about what happened offensively.
PFF’s numbers reveal three particularly interesting takeaways from Alabama’s season opener.
1. EJ Crowell Was Alabama’s Highest-Graded Offensive Player Despite Playing Just 12 Snaps
Perhaps the most eye-catching number from the PFF report is sitting right at the top of the offensive leaderboard.
Freshman running back EJ Crowell received a 79.3 overall offensive grade, the highest mark of any Alabama offensive player against East Carolina.
What’s particularly interesting is how little he played.
Crowell logged just 12 offensive snaps according to PFF.
For comparison, quarterback Keelon Russell played 76 snaps, Jackson Lloyd played 76, Michael Carroll played 76, and Racine Delgaty played 76.
Yet Crowell’s 79.3 grade topped all of them.
Crowell also posted a 76.5 rushing grade, while his 73.1 receiving grade was strong as well.
That is a pretty impressive debut for the five-star freshman.
Crowell didn’t need a huge workload to make an impact, either. He scored Alabama’s first touchdown of the season on a three-yard run, becoming the first Alabama freshman to score the team’s first touchdown of a season since Terry Grant in 2007.
The PFF numbers suggest Alabama may have another legitimate playmaker in its running back room.
2. PFF Liked What It Saw From QB Keelon Russell
There was no question about who was running Alabama’s offense Saturday.
Russell played 76 snaps, essentially handling the entire game at quarterback before Austin Mack entered for a brief appearance.
And despite a few mistakes in his first career start, Russell finished with a 75.8 overall PFF grade, good for the third-highest mark among Alabama offensive players.
His passing grade was 72.8, while his rushing grade came in at 70.5.
That’s notable because Russell’s rushing ability was one of the biggest differences he brought to Alabama’s offense.
The sophomore quarterback finished with 86 rushing yards and a touchdown while throwing for 256 yards. He accounted for 342 yards of total offense, the second-highest total ever by an Alabama quarterback making his first start.
The PFF numbers don’t suggest Russell played a perfect game. They do, however, reinforce the idea that his overall performance was a positive one.
More importantly, Alabama gave him an enormous workload in his first start.
That experience should be extremely valuable heading into the Crimson Tide’s first SEC game at Kentucky.
3. Ryan Coleman-Williams’ PFF Grade Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
This might be the most interesting discrepancy in the entire report.
Ryan Coleman-Williams had arguably the most productive receiving performance of any Alabama player against East Carolina.
He caught five passes for 130 yards, including a 58-yard reception, and recorded the fourth 100-yard receiving game of his Alabama career.
Yet PFF gave him only a 61.8 overall offensive grade.
His receiving grade was 64.1.
For perspective, Coleman-Williams played 58 snaps, including 33 pass plays and 24 run plays, according to the PFF chart.
So while the stat sheet shows a dominant receiving performance, PFF’s grading system saw some things that didn’t translate directly into the box score.
That’s an important reminder about PFF grades.
A player’s statistical production and his individual PFF grade aren’t always going to line up perfectly.
In Coleman-Williams’ case, the discrepancy is especially interesting because he also dropped two passes during the game before ultimately making several major plays. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said the bounce-back performance was indicative of the trust the staff has in the team captain.
What These PFF Numbers Tell Us About Alabama
The biggest takeaway from the PFF numbers may be the amount of talent Alabama was able to put on the field in its opener.
Crowell barely played and still earned the team’s best offensive grade.
Russell handled nearly the entire game and performed at a high level in his first start.
And Coleman-Williams produced 130 receiving yards despite receiving a relatively modest overall grade.
Those are three very different stories from the same game.
The encouraging part for Alabama is that there is plenty of room for improvement.
The Crimson Tide already put up 48 points and 487 yards in Week 1. Now, the challenge gets significantly tougher.
Alabama travels to Kentucky next Saturday for its first SEC game of the season.
And if the PFF grades from Week 1 are any indication, Alabama has plenty of intriguing pieces to build around.
PFF Grades Reveal 3 Intriguing Takeaways From Alabama’s Week 1 Win