Alabama Football: Leading the way at the NFL Draft
By Matt Green
There are 22 days till college football season, and today we focus on a team that has dominated the NFL Draft in recent years.
The Alabama football program has acted like a stepping stone to the National Football League, and they can thank Nick Saban for that. Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa in was 2007, and in 2008, the Crimson Tide had zero players drafted into the NFL for the first time since 1961, giving you an idea of the lack of talent Alabama had when Saban arrived.
But since then, things have changed. Alabama has put together top recruiting class after top recruiting class, which has led to national championships, and ultimately Crimson Tide players being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. And that leads us to no. 22 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.
Alabama has had 22 players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since Nick Saban arrived
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Alabama’s 22 first round picks are the most in the SEC over the last 10 years. Florida has the second most first round picks among SEC schools with 14 picks over the last 10 years. LSU has had 10, Texas A&M has had 9, and Georgia and Tennessee have both had 7 first round picks over that same time period. Missouri has actually had 8 first round picks over the last decade, but only three since they joined the SEC in 2012.
Last season, Alabama had four players selected in the first round, which marks the ninth straight year the Crimson Tide have had a first round pick.
The Alabama football program set two records at last year’s NFL Draft. They were the first school to ever have seven players selected in the first 55 picks of the draft, and they had nine players selected in the first 80 picks. They came up one short of Ohio State’s record with 10 players selected in the first three rounds of the draft.
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And the Tide are far from done. According to WalterFootball.com, they project three more Alabama football players to go in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft in Calvin Ridley, Da’Ron Payne, and Minkah Fitzpatrick.