2022 Auburn Football Depth Chart Predictions

Auburn football opens fall camp today, with the first practices set for tomorrow. Since it's about that time, let's project who will be where when the Tigers open the season in a month.

RB Tank Bigsby (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics)

Several years ago, during an open viewing window at an Auburn football practice, a certain assistant coach looked over at me and a few other media members who were scribbling down which players were lining up where during a team drill.

The coach chuckled and said, “Y’all do know we move around guys out here to mess with you, right?”

He could have been telling the truth. He could have been playing mind games with all of us. Or he could have just said it to be funny.¹

But that message has rattled around in my brain for the last few offseasons. A lot of time and work goes into creating these unofficial depth charts during spring practices or fall camps, and for good reason. Readers can’t seem to get enough of them. They’re preseason mile markers, with projections going up throughout the summer months and ramping up the closer we get to the official Week 1 release.

So this is another depth chart projection for the 2022 Auburn football team. It’s the first one I’ve done at The Observer in quite a while.² But the time just felt right.

Today, Auburn officially opens fall camp. Players will report and have their first meetings. Media members will get to talk to head coach Bryan Harsin, offensive coordinator Eric Kiesau and defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding this afternoon. Then, the Tigers hit the field on Friday, starting with a morning veteran practice and an afternoon rookie practice.

There will be movement on Auburn’s real depth chart over the next four weeks, between now and when the season opens with a matchup against FCS opponent Mercer. We’ll learn a lot about the Tigers during fall camp. The coaches, who obviously spend much more time with the players than what the media gets in open practice windows, will learn even more.³

That being said, this depth chart prediction could be obsolete in a short amount of time. In fact, something could be proven wrong on the very first day of practice. But all of this is based on what we saw last season, what we learned in the spring and what we heard during the summer.

For most of these positions on the depth chart, there are three bullet-point groups, which represent different tiers. A two-deep depth chart is nice, but the amount of players who contribute week in and week out usually go beyond the 44 or so listed on offense and defense. Here, we tried to fit every scholarship player on both sides of the ball.⁴

The first bullet point is the predicted starter or starters — pretty self-explanatory. The second bullet point is for the next men up or important rotational players. The third bullet point is a group for players who aren’t widely expected to be key pieces on offense or defense but could rise in fall camp. Again, these tiers are predictions, not stone-cold locks. Expect some movement.

And before we get to the projected depth chart, here’s a quick in-house ad: Throughout all of fall camp, new subscribers to The Observer will only have to pay $45 for the first year — that’s 25% off of our usual annual rate and the lowest price we’ve ever offered.⁵ This deal will run from now until the end of the day on August 27, which is the last Saturday before Week 1 of the season. There’s no special link or code. Just click on the button below to subscribe, and you’ll get that offer.

If you’ve been waiting for a good time to pull the trigger on a subscription, this is your moment. We’ll have plenty of newsletters and podcasts, including our new bonus Friends of the Program show with Pablo Escobarner and Dave McKinney,⁶ covering fall camp and basketball’s overseas tour all month long. And if you’re already subscribed, tell your friends and enemies that this is the best time to subscribe.

Now that all that housekeeping is done, let’s get to the depth chart. Remember, it’s all unofficial, but hopefully it’ll go better than my attempt at keeping stats from Auburn’s game against the Israel U-20s.⁷