So here is the way I see it
Player had a 2016 commitable offer, so he commits
Bama sees an opportunity to add better players and discusses grayshirt. Per B&G, they said they would have to wait until NSD to see where he fell.
Therefore, they pulled the commitable offer, because they may not want want him in the class.
So to summarize, his 2016 commitable offer was pulled days prior to NSD, and replaced with a backup offer for 2016 and a 2017 offer (not commitable)
So yes, Bama effectively pulled his original offer. Worse than that, he was committed and Bama and they renegged on their verbal agreement with the kid.