30 best Alabama football players to play for Nick Saban

Best Alabama football players under Nick Saban: 18. Will Anderson

The script is still being written for Will Anderson. However, he has a chance to be in the top ten of this list when it’s all said and done. He won the job as a freshman and was one of the best defensive players in the country. He won the Shaun Alexander-FWAA Freshman of the Year, was named as a Freshman All-American and was named to the second-team All-SEC. That was all in his freshman season.

His second season was so much better. Anderson won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the top defensive player in the country. He was a unanimous first-team All-American, and he swept all awards across college football. He led the country with 17.5 sacks, led the nation with 34.5 tackles for loss, and showed incredible consistency by being named SEC Defensive Player of the Week five times.

Anderson can do everything. He can rush the passer, chase down tackles across the field, defend the pass, and stop the running back in the backfield on a goalline play. We saw how teams are going to try to play him in the National Championship against Georgia. After dominating them in the SEC Championship Game, recording two tackles for loss and a sack, the Bulldogs had two players on him on almost every single play. Is that not the note of a great player when teams are changing their offensive game plan to stop you?

Anderson is returning for one more year, and he’s the favorite to sweep as many defensive player awards as possible this season. If he avoids injury, he could be considered the best defensive player to ever play under Saban.