After being anticipated for months, Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien was hired Tuesday in the same role for the New England Patriots.

This will mark the fifth time in the past seven seasons that Alabama will have a new offensive coordinator. Three of the four previous hires in that span came from the NFL in Brian Daboll (2017), Steve Sarkisian (2019) and O’Brien (2021), although Sarkisian and O’Brien both had extensive backgrounds in college.

With Alabama’s play-caller position now vacant, here are some of the available candidates that Alabama could consider to replace him:

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby: The first-year Sooners offensive coordinator has experience coaching two high-tempo offenses under Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss (2020-21) and Josh Heupel at UCF (2018-19), after coming up in Baylor’s system from 2008-16. Nick Saban changed his offense almost 10 years ago because of what then-Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze was doing to beat him, and Tennessee’s performance under Heupel suggests Saban could look for something similar at Alabama.

Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach Joe Brady: Brady was a little-known young assistant who spent one season at LSU in 2019, helping coach Joe Burrow to an undefeated season and national title. That landed him a job as Matt Rhule’s offensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers, but he was fired before the end of his second season. He spent this season with the Bills and reportedly will interview for the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator position.

New York Giants quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney: The former Alabama analyst followed Daboll to the Bills in 2018 and was played a role in the behind-the-scenes development of Josh Allen. He then followed Daboll again to the New York Giants, who made the NFL playoffs this season.

Ole Miss co-offensive coordinator/QBs coach Charlie Weis Jr.: He was an offensive analyst for Alabama in 2015-16 under Kiffin as offensive coordinator, then spent a season with the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 with Steve Sarkisian. He re-joined Kiffin for 2018 and 2019 as Florida Atlantic’s offensive coordinator, and after a stint at USF, joined Kiffin again this past season at Ole Miss. Not withstanding any dynamics that would come into play with a coordinator moving from one SEC school to another, Weis does have a background in Saban’s system.

Former Florida coach Dan Mullen: If Alabama wants to go the experienced route, Mullen is one of the more accomplished coaches who stayed out of coaching last season. His calling card was the development of Dak Prescott at Mississippi State, and his Florida offense with Kyle Trask gave Alabama problems in the 2020 SEC championship game.

Former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman: The longtime NFL assistant has brief college experience with Jim Harbaugh at Stanford, and would be an outside-the-box hire for Saban. If Saban wants to run a spread, up-tempo offense, there is not a whole lot of sense in hiring Roman, whose NFL offenses with the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens were compact and run-heavy.

Former New York Jets coach Adam Gase: A former student assistant under Saban at Michigan State and graduate assistant at LSU, Gase has spent the past two seasons out of coaching after being fired by the New York Jets. He reportedly was under consideration with O’Brien to be hired by Alabama two years ago.

Former Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett: Another experienced coach without a job, Garrett was Saban’s quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and 2006.

Former Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury: After being fired from the Cardinals earlier this month, Kingsbury told Fox Sports he bought a one-way plane ticket to Thailand and was declining NFL job opportunities. But if his thinking changed, Kingsbury would be an intriguing option for Alabama if it wanted to adopt the spread offense that made Kingsbury a successful college coach leading Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M and Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.