Former Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. had no shortage of good receiving options this past season.

He could throw to Rome Odunze. Or Ja’Lynn Polk. Or Jalen McMillan. All of those options wound up selected in the first three rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft.

The trio combined for 206 receptions for 3,358 yards and 27 receiving touchdowns as Penix’s top three receivers.

Even with all of the opportunities of which those three players took advantage, Washington still had enough to go around for tight end Jack Westover to have a strong and productive season.

Westover managed to catch 46 passes for 433 yards and four touchdowns.

The Alabama football tight ends have to be encouraged by that. Now that former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer is leading the Crimson Tide, Westover’s production indicates there could still be plenty of opportunities for the tight ends this season.

That’s even with the variety of talented options Alabama has at receiver, whether it be Germie Bernard and Kendrick Law or Ryan Williams and Cole Adams, and others.

The Crimson Tide held its final viewing period of the preseason open to reporters on Tuesday. AL.com spent the 15 or so minutes watching the tight ends. Here’s what we noticed.

Alabama football practice observations: Tight ends

• The practice viewing mainly consisted of position work for the tight ends with a little work with the quarterbacks. But there weren’t any drills where the tight ends faced a defense. They mainly worked against dummies or air.
• The drills reporters saw featured a nice mix of pass catching and blocking.
• The first drill: Blocking. Tight ends ran about five yards, squared up, chopped their feet, shivered a pad a coach held then drove a few feet forward. It seemed to simulate open-field blocking. Sometimes the coach with the pad would move to the left or right, forcing the tight end to adjust to where they blocked him.
• Next the tight ends linked up with the quarterbacks to run drills. First the tight ends ran short, 5-yard routes. Next, they ran routes with double moves that resulted in them running along the sideline and catching a pass about 15 yards downfield.
• Jalen Milroe threw to CJ Dippre, then Ty Simpson threw to Robbie Ouzts. Both passes were completed. Then Austin Mack attempted to hit Josh Cuevas, but the pass was too high.
• The quarterbacks had two more drills of throwing routes to tight ends, both within 10 yards. Then, they switched to a drill where two quarterbacks threw at the same time, each to a different tight end running across each other’s face.
• Once these passing drills wrapped up, the tight ends took part in one more blocking drill. This one took a bit more agility; The tight ends had to run one way for a couple feet, plant on their outside foot, then run up field a few yards to locate a moving “defender,” which was their coach holding a pad. Then the tight ends had to square up and drive him a few feet.
• The final drill during the media viewing period included tight ends catching passes in the flat from a coach.
• As for the pecking order, Dippre almost always went first through drills. It’s clear he’s the leader of the position. Dippre should have an increased role in the passing game this season after he was primarily used as a blocker in Tommy Rees’ offense a season ago.
• Ouzts was usually next up behind Dippre through drills. Also one of the most experienced in the group, Ouzts joins Dippre as the frontrunners for playing time in this offense at tight end.
• Behind Dippre and Ouzts, there was a bit of a mix of the group between Cuevas, Danny Lewis Jr., Jay Lindsey and Ty Lockwood. Cuevas transferred from Washington ahead of the season.
• There were slight changes as to who ran after Dippre and Ouzts, but those four were in the mix next, particularly Cuevas. He was often the third tight end behind Dippre and Ouzts through drills.
• Sometimes practice order can be indicative of depth chart (such as the running backs); whereas, sometimes it doesn’t mean much (such as the cornerbacks).

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.