HAMPTON, Georgia — In the beginning, it was about the raw talent for Will Anderson Jr. The teenage edge rusher from this Atlanta suburb, Anderson was a Porsche without brake lights.
It didn’t matter if the kid couldn’t decipher a bull rush from a speed rush. He was a wind-up toy who never wound down. Forget about technique … that could come later. In that beginning, it was first about making it through a Dutchtown High School practice.
Anderson’s defensive coordinator, Will Rogers, remembers the prize defender lining up against the offense in drills.
“We had to take him out,” said Rogers, who was at Dutchtown for Anderson’s entire high school career. “We couldn’t get anything done [offensively]. I hear they’re doing the same thing at Alabama. They’ve got to get his butt out of there.”
There is no official word on Anderson’s impact at Alabama practices. They are mostly held out of sight of prying eyes. There is enough proof on Saturdays, however.
Anderson, a unanimous 2022 CBS Sports / 247Sports Preseason All-America selection and our Preseason Player of the Year, enters the season as the nation’s best defender, a unanimous Preseason All-American and a potential No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft.
At age 19, Anderson became the first true freshman to start at linebacker for Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban. As a sophomore last season, he led the country in both sacks (17.5) and tackles for loss (34.5). No Power Five player has topped both categories in the same season for at least the last 13 years. Pro Football Focus lists Anderson as only the second true sophomore to lead the country in total pressures (82).
But Anderson’s impact extends far beyond his stat line. In an age when edge rushers are so valued, he forces Bama observers to crack the vault and research the program’s history. Ultimately, Anderson has to be considered among the best-ever Tide players at his position only two seasons into his career.
There have been great linebackers at Alabama — Cornelius Bennett, Lee Roy Jordan, Rolando McClain, Dont’a Hightower — but the best comparison for Anderson might be Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas.
“It’s like the 15th question I’ve had on that,” Anderson said last month at SEC Media Days when asked about comparisons to Thomas. “I watched clips. [He’s] a freakish athlete.”
Thomas was more than that. In 1988, he finished 10th in Heisman Trophy voting after posting a school-record 27 sacks. That was 12 years before the NCAA even started keeping track of the statistic. His legend grew in the NFL. At the time of Thomas’ death in 2000, he had the ninth-most sacks in NFL history. His record of seven in one game against Seattle in 1990 has never been broken.
If Thomas hadn’t left us, there could have been a formal passing of the torch from one freakish athlete to another at Alabama. There are already flashes of Thomas in his play.
“He’s got a burst like you won’t believe,” Rogers pointed out, “and he accelerates through tackles. Most people just kind of tackle them and drag.”
“His ability to get off the ball is amazing,” said Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, who played against Anderson in the 2020 Army All-American Bowl. “He’s smarter than others.”
Anderson has become so dominant that he is being mentioned as a Heisman Trophy favorite, not just a candidate. Winning the award clearly motivates him after being left out as a finalist in 2021. The defensive end force who did make it, Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, finished second in the voting.
The foundation, then, has been laid for the voters. The last defensive runner-up was Iowa’s Alex Karras in 1957. The last defensive winner, of course, was Michigan’s Charles Woodson in 1997.
“The reason I put [the Heisman] on my goal sheet this year is because not only for myself but for younger athletes that play defense as…
Read More: Motivation, focus never an issue for Will Anderson Jr., the 2022 CBS Sports