Since Nick Saban’s arrival to Tuscaloosa in 2007, Alabama has not only become a team that has created a dynasty winning national championships, but it also has become a program that sends players to the NFL every year.
With the 2020 NFL Draft happening in less than a month, it’s the perfect time to start a new series in which we will go over all of the Tide’s 29 first-round draft picks. The first player we went over was Andre Smith, who finished his career at Alabama with 15 awards and honors and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals as the No. 6 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. The second player we went over was former Alabama star linebacker Rolando McClain who would not only win many incredible awards while at Alabama, but was drafted by Oakland Raiders as the No. 8 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. The 3rd Alabama player drafted in the first round for the Tide was Kareem Jackson who would go on to be drafted by the Houston Texans as the No. 20 overall pick in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft. The 4th player to become drafted under Nick Saban was Marcell Dareus. Number 5 was Julio Jones who has spent his entire career in Atlanta after being the 6th overall pick in the 2011 Draft by the Falcons.
This time, we will be focusing on another former Alabama football star, James Carpenter.
James Carpenter is the 6️⃣th of Nick Saban’s 29 First Round draft picks at Alabama. @JEcarpenter77 #29andCounting #BamaFactor pic.twitter.com/rTZuV0qWDP
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) March 30, 2020
Carpenter went on to start every single game at left tackle for the Crimson Tide in both 2009 and 2010.
Not only did he have a huge impact on the Crimson Tide’s offense, he impressed teams in the NFL for his speed at such a big size.
He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks with the 25th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft where he played from 2011-2014.
In 2015, Carpenter signed a 4 year, $19.1 million dollar contract with the New York Jets where he stayed from 2015-2018.
In 2019, Carpenter signed a 4 year, $21 million dollar contract with the Atlanta Falcons. This past season, he was named the Falcons starting left guard, and started 11 games before suffering a concussion and being added to the injury reserve list.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]