Will Deontae Lawson be ready for 2025 season? What Alabama football linebacker said
"We thought a year ago at this time he'd be wearing an NFL jersey," DeBoer said at SEC media days, an adage he's repeated each time he talks about his only returning captain.
An ACL injury against Oklahoma changed Lawson's path, one that "wasn't a light injury whatsoever," the linebacker said. But while expressing his admiration for the Alabama injury staff, Lawson said he thinks he'll be ready for 2025.
"I'm sure I won't take every rep, but they'll definitely monitor me and make sure I'm ready to go for August 30," Lawson said.
Lawson later clarified he thinks he's a "9 out of 10" when it comes to his recovery path.
Lawson missed spring practice rehabbing his ACL injury, something he called difficult.
"You can't feel sorry for yourself," Lawson said. "You've got to do what you can."
The injury was one of Lawson's "biggest" reasons for coming back, while he said that the decision itself carried much more weight than just performing on the field.
"It was definitely a very hard decision," Lawson said. "I think any college athlete, any college football player, we all have dreams and aspirations of playing at the next level. I feel like I had that opportunity. But I had to look past that a little bit. There was still some things I had to work on. Being a leader more, a vocal leader, building more relationships off the field. I feel like this would be a great year to kind of set me up for life after football. Obviously I have dreams and aspirations to play at the next level, but I think the injury kind of made me realize it can be taken away from you at any point. It kind of made me just want to dig deeper in life after football."
Lawson had 76 tackles, 7 tackles-for-loss and 2 sacks in 2024, adding four pass deflections.
Alabama opens its 2025 season at Florida State Aug. 30.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Deontae Lawson talks recovery ahead of Alabama football 2025 season
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