Getty Image / Justin Ford
For seventeen seasons, Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban had one of the greatest runs that college football has ever seen. He captured six national championships at Alabama, and won ten games or more his final sixteen seasons prior to announcing his retirement on Wednesday.
Those are all impressive numbers, to say the least. But, there’s one number that not a lot of people are talking about that I think is more interesting than those numbers, and it has to do with the incredible NFL factory that Nick Saban oversaw at Alabama.
Saban’s Alabama alums have made a staggering amount of money in the NFL, $2.269 BILLION, according to The Athletic.
When you consider that the biggest contracts are handed out to quarterbacks, and only one Alabama quarterback has signed a big extension in Jalen Hurts, and he’s in the first year of his contract. So, an incredible amount of this money has been handed out to players at positions that aren’t even the top earners.
So, who are the top earners of the Saban tenure? The top two are actually wide receivers, as Julio Jones at over $148 million and Amari Cooper at over $116 million and counting. That’s quite a bit of money.
Some of the other top earners include defensive stars Kareem Jackson, CJ Mosley, and Marlon Humphrey.
Overall, Saban coached 49 first-round picks in his Alabama tenure, and that number will grow come this April at the 2024 NFL Draft as edge rushers Chris Braswell Dallas Turner, corners Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry and offensive lineman JC Latham all have a good chance of being drafted in the first round.
Alabama hired Washington Head Coach Kalen Deboer to succeed Nick Saban on Friday.