Alabama inside linebacker Dylan Moses suffered a knee injury believed to be a torn ACL last night in practice.
Alabama star linebacker Dylan Moses suffered a torn ACL during the team's practice last night and is out for the year, per sources https://t.co/1dyDuKijYR
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) August 28, 2019
Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban stated Moses will require surgery and will be out for “an indefinite amount of time.” Moses will likely be out for the entire season.
This is a major blow for the Alabama defense. Moses was already primed to be the defensive leader for the Crimson Tide and was on the Butkus Award watch list. With another season like his 2018, where Moses posted 86 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks, he likely would have been a finalist for the award. Without him, Alabama will turn to two true freshmen to start at the inside linebacker position: Christian Harris and Shane Lee. Coach Saban has praised Harris throughout camp, but two true freshman starting is an issue for the Crimson Tide.
In regards to the NFL Draft, Dylan Moses was thought of as a potential top-5 player in this entire draft. Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline gave Moses a first-round grade, saying,” He [Moses] is a complete three-down defender who makes plays against the run and is also incredibly effective in space…in the end, I believe he has more upside than former Crimson Tide linebacker CJ Mosley.”
Additionally, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler said on Twitter, “Moses was my LB1 and my no.6 overall prospect.”
Losing a top-flight defensive playmaker in any draft class is difficult, especially with an ACL tear that will sideline him for an entire season.
It’s difficult to say how this will affect his draft stock. The injury is a major blow to it, but Moses was already highly regarded. We saw two players with injuries during or after the season still go in the first round in Oklahoma’s Marquise Brown and Mississippi State’s Jeffrey Simmons. It will depend on the severity of the tear and how Moses’s rehab goes. If it goes well, the first round is not out of reach for the Alabama linebacker.
For now, the Crimson Tide remain focused on their opener against Duke on Saturday.
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