If you wandered into the Alabama weight room this offseason, you might’ve thought you’d stumbled into a Marvel set. Clanging metal, wide-eyed teammates, and one particular mountain of a man moving weight that’d make your local powerlifting champ cry. The crazy part? This wasn’t even at a powerlifting meet — it was just another day in Tuscaloosa. And one of the Tide’s biggest wrecking balls nearly made college football history with a single lift.
Meet Jaeden Roberts. The 6’5”, 322-pound senior guard is already known for being a problem on the field — but in the gym? Different animal. Roberts, who returns for his third straight season as a starter, checked in at No. 27 on Bruce Feldman’s 2025 “Freaks List,” and for good reason. He squatted 805 pounds this summer, flirting with the all-time college football squat record and landing just shy of the 850-pound Texas state high school mark set by Clifford “Quad” Chambers in 2019. Oh, and Roberts wasn’t exactly a slouch elsewhere — 525 bench, 415 power clean, 29-inch vertical, and a GPS-tracked 19.06 mph sprint. For a guy his size, that’s comic-book level physics.
The story isn’t just in the numbers, though. Roberts earned every bit of this freak label the hard way. He redshirted in 2021, barely saw snaps in 2022, then broke out as a right guard in 2023, posting near-80% PFF grades in both run and pass blocking. Violent hands, picture-perfect balance, and a knack for stonewalling interior rushers — that’s his calling card. When healthy, he’s a tone-setter, and Alabama’s offense looks noticeably nastier when he’s in the lineup.
Even his high school days read like a strength legend. Out of North Shore High in Texas, Roberts won back-to-back 6A-DI state titles and famously pushed a 1,400-pound sled at age 16 — a record at TopSpeed training facility. He flipped from Auburn to Bama in 2021, and while it took time to earn his spot, once he did, he became a fixture. Last season, injuries limited him, but he still logged 11 starts, landed on the Lombardi and Outland Trophy watch lists, and posted highlight games like eight knockdowns vs. Georgia and a 92% grade against Wisconsin.
The offseason grind hasn’t stopped. Roberts’ mom, Twanisha, even hinted last month that her son allegedly hit a 900-pound squat rep — unconfirmed by any official, but very much in line with the way his strength curve’s been trending. If that’s legit? We might be talking about a new standard for offensive linemen heading into the 2025 season.
With Roberts back alongside fellow returning starters Kadyn Proctor and Parker Brailsford, Bama’s O-line isn’t just talented — it’s terrifying. After a 9-4 letdown in Kalen DeBoer’s debut season, the Tide aren’t exactly in the mood to play nice. Roberts came back for his redshirt senior year not just to dominate SEC fronts but to polish his technique, stay healthy, and make sure NFL scouts leave Tuscaloosa drooling.
And the scary part? Roberts isn’t even the only monster in the room.
The other two Bama freaks on Bruce Feldman’s ‘freak list’
If Roberts is a bulldozer, Kadyn Proctor is a wrecking ball on stilts. The 6’7”, 366-pound junior left tackle sits at No. 2 on Feldman’s list, right behind Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith. Proctor’s 32-inch vertical is straight-up absurd — that’s wide receiver territory — and he broad jumped 9’3” while tossing up an 815-pound squat, 535 bench, and 405 clean. That vertical? Same as former Colorado WR LaJohntay Wester, except Wester’s 203 pounds lighter. Proctor started all 13 games as a true freshman in 2023, earned All-SEC Freshman honors, and has been pancaking grown men ever since.
Holding it down in the middle is Parker Brailsford (No. 20), the junior center who transferred from Washington with DeBoer in 2024. Listed at 6’2” and 290, Brailsford might be the quickest of the trio — GPS clocked him at 19.47 mph. He’s got a 33-inch vertical, 9’5” broad jump, 505 bench, 385 clean, and a 675-pound squat. Last year, he started all 12 games, posted 63 knockdowns, and allowed just half a sack all season, even against heavyweights like Georgia.
For the first time in program history, Alabama put three O-linemen on Feldman’s Freaks List in the same year. After a season that didn’t meet the standard in Tuscaloosa, DeBoer’s crew is loading the trenches with human cheat codes. So yeah, 805 pounds on a squat rack might seem like the headline. But in this Bama locker room, it’s just part of the freak show.
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