With most, if not all, eyes drifting toward the four quarterbacks wearing black, no-contact jerseys during Alabama’s spring scrimmage, it would’ve been easy to forget about the re-tooled skill positions.

Gone were the 100-plus catches and 1,000-plus yards from Jahmyr Gibbs, Cameron Latu and Traeshon Holden. In their place were an exciting transfer, a bunch of freshmen and second-year players looking to maximize their opportunities. Yet, at times, Saturday’s skill position group looked similar to that of last year. Both wideouts from Team Crimson and Team White struggled with drops during A-Day, which Crimson won 30-21.

Along with interceptions, the miscues hampered the evaluation of potential starters Jalen Milroe or Ty Simpson. Head coach Nick Saban told ESPN the drops were “surprising” since he had liked the overall progress so far.

“We’re looking at the big picture,” Saban said. “We’re looking at the 15 days in total of how those guys played. Isaiah Bond had a really good spring. Ja’Corey Brooks had a good spring. Jermaine Burton had a really good spring. I think No. 11 (Malik Benson), who made some catches at the end of the game today, has a chance to be a real contributor. 24 (Emmanuel Henderson) is getting better all the time, had a really nice touchdown catch today so I think we got the right combination of people at that position. We still need to pay better attention to detail in route running and sort of get a better, I don’t know, like chemistry between quarterback, receiver so that we can develop confidence in the passing game.”

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Alabama pass catchers hauled in half (42-of-84) attempts thrown their way with first-year player Benson leading with five receptions for 70 yards and a score. The Hutchinson (Kansas) C.C.-product was hard to spot before the team’s final drive when he displayed his potential. On three-straight passes, Milroe found Benson to his right for gains of 20, 23 and 18 yards, the last of which was a deep route into the endzone.

Alabama’s quarterbacks also had a few deep balls that were either too far, like Simpson to Burton, or thrown into double-coverage. The Crimson Tide’s starting secondary, led by three sacks from Malachi Moore, forced contested plays and, generally, had the advantage. UA’s pass-catchers instead showed out in moments.

A standout was when Simpson finally hit Burton for 57 yards to the 3-yard line in the fourth quarter. Amari Niblack hauled in a one-handed grab. Henderson, a sophomore from Harford, had the longest catch for Team White when he broke down the right sideline for a 36-yard touchdown from Milroe.

Maryland transfer CJ Dippre was targeted twice, hauling in one Milroe pass for six yards on Team White’s first-quarter scoring drive. Saban told a sideline reporter during the game that tight ends were open (they caught six of the first nine pass attempts as a unit), the quarterbacks just weren’t hitting them often enough.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].