Alabama football's NFL draft run under Saban is ending. How will DeBoer's begin? | Goodbread
Dallas Turner will probably be the first Alabama football player chosen in the 2024 NFL draft on Thursday.
At some point on Saturday, Jase McClellan or Will Reichard could be the last. If not, perhaps Justin Eboigbe. And over the two days in between, retired coach Nick Saban’s last Alabama draft class will take shape to put the ending punctuation on the most remarkable run of draft success by any school in college football history. That’s not to say new coach Kalen DeBoer can’t keep Alabama’s assembly line-like draft success humming, but a brilliant chapter is ending, and starting with the 2025 draft, DeBoer will begin penning a new one.
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The Crimson Tide has four more potential first-round picks this year: Turner, arguably the draft’s top pass rusher, tackle JC Latham, and cornerbacks Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry. If all are selected Thursday, that will give Saban 48 first-round picks at Alabama, an average of exactly three per year since left tackle Andre Smith became the first as the Cincinnati Bengals’ choice at No. 6 overall in 2009. All manner of computations can generate mind-bending factoids about Alabama’s impact on the draft under Saban. He coached 123 selections over the last 16 drafts (the most of any school ever in the same span), and is about to extend a record run of 15 drafts with at least one first-round pick. His 2021 draft class included six first-rounders, tying the 2004 Miami class for the most all-time in a single draft.
This all should be considered unrepeatable for DeBoer or anyone else.
That said, the impact the draft has on Alabama recruiting shouldn’t be lost on the new coach, either.
At the top of the recruiting food chain, where Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and other bluebloods gobble up the best of the best, elite high school players generally buy in on two selling points: NIL money, and NFL money. The NIL windfall comes guaranteed up front, and therefore, like it or not, carries the most weight with recruits. NFL dollars aren’t guaranteed to anyone, but to the extent that recruits judge college programs based on their standing as a gateway to the pros, the NFL draft is the ultimate barometer.
The first round, in particular.
Filling in the back end of the draft with Day 3 selections that often pushed Alabama’s total into double digits contributed to Saban's reputation, as well, but it’s the first-round dominance that has always snapped recruits to attention. From a recruiting standpoint, consider this Thursday’s addition of 3 to 4 more first-rounders from Alabama as one of the best parting gifts Saban could’ve left his successor.
The formula for Saban’s draft run was more complicated than simply attracting top recruits, however. Recruiting and draft success alone don’t make a perpetual cycle without a third and critical component: player development. Saban was every bit as adept at spurring improvement in his top players as he was at signing them. DeBoer, from all early indications, looks poised to maintain Alabama as a recruiting power. How well he develops talent is harder to judge, especially since his two previous head coaching stops at the Division I level lasted two years each.
Over the next couple years, Alabama will still be placing Saban-recruited players in the 2025 and 2026 drafts, but over time, DeBoer’s developmental touch will be increasingly apparent.
And increasingly important.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban passing quite the NFL draft torch to Alabama's Kalen DeBoer
