Lane Kiffin: Alabama backfield more talented than any in NFL

If you were wondering how long it would take for Lane Kiffin to fire off some sort of questionable quote as the Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator, your wait is over.

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While talking about Alabama running backs T.J. Yeldon, Kenyan Drake and Derrick Henry to AL.com, Kiffin had this to say:

"“As you guys know extremely well, I think the offense is led by the tailbacks. There probably aren’t three more talented tailbacks in the NFL on a roster than we’re fortunate to be able to work with at Alabama.”"

Am I crazy, or does Kiffin almost attempt to sound humble there?

Yeah, I’m crazy.

But in truth, Kiffin might actually be on the money here. The running back position in the NFL has taken a bit of a nose dive — both in talent and importance — in recent years, and with three backs that good on one roster it could eclipse what any single NFL team has.

On the roles of the running backs, Kiffin said he sees expanded roles for Yeldon and Drake, which probably means (in Kiffinese) more passes caught out of the backfield.

Kiffin wants to mix things up a little too on offense it would seem, saying the scheme he’s planning for the Tide is “really kind of a half-and-half system,” meaning some parts of last years playbook would be retained, while the rest would be new.

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