Nick Saban continues to be a big winner on NFL Draft Day. The Alabama football coach — arguably the GOAT in college football — set the record with 34 first-round picks, the most in NFL Draft history, when three players were selected in the opening round. Specifically, 29 of those picks were out of Alabama.
And Saban just keeps piling up the NFL Draft stats. With four Crimson Tide players taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday night — Tua Tagovailoa, Henry Ruggs III, Jerry Jeudy and Jedrick Wills Jr. — the 68-year-old coach’s record for most first-rounders was bumped up to 38 (and counting). And they brought the total to 33 first-round players out of Tuscaloosa.
But Alabama’s star quarterback — who was the Crimson Tide’s first pick Thursday and the No. 5 overall pick to the Miami Dolphins — helped Saban reach yet another impressive milestone in terms of the draft.
Not only was Tagovailoa the first quarterback Saban coached to be selected in the first round, but that was also the lone non-specialist position that Saban hadn’t had drafted among the first 32 picks, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
What’s more, again thanks to Tua, Saban is now the first college coach to have all 22 positions drafted at some point in the first round in the common draft era (since 1967).
All 11 on offense ✔️
All 11 on defense ✔️The only college football coach in the NFL common draft era to have all 22 positions drafted in the first round: @AlabamaFTBL's Nick Saban. pic.twitter.com/8dMsAjgPs2
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) April 24, 2020
Not surprising that Saban’s the first to this mark, but ridiculously impressive nonetheless. Alabama has also had four players selected in the first round in three of the last four years, with the 2019 NFL Draft being the exception.
Another wild way to think of it: Saban has 33 first-round draft picks out of Alabama and only 23 losses in his 13 seasons with the Crimson Tide. It’s absolutely bonkers to realize that he has 10 more first-round players than total losses in more than a decade with Alabama.
Nick Saban: GOAT.
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