On Saturday, Nick Saban was asked if he can tell a difference with his team during spring practice after players leave early for the NFL Draft.
Saban went on a four-minute diatribe into players leaving early for the NFL Draft.
During the four minutes, Saban — without naming names — said the following about a specific third round draft pick from Alabama in 2018.
“Now, we have guys that have no draft grades, seventh-round grades, free-agent grades, fifth-round grades that are going out to the draft. And the person that loses in that is the player,” Saban said. “If you’re a third-round draft pick, and we had one here last year — I’m not going to say any names — goes and starts for his team, so he’s making third-round money, which is not that great. He’d be the first guy taken at his position this year, probably, and make $15-18 million more. So, the agent makes out, the club makes out, and now they’ve got a guy that is going to play for that kind of money for three more years, aight.”
Alabama’s only third-round pick was Jaguars S Ronnie Harrison. Saban implied that Harrison would have been better to stay at Alabama and enter the NFL Draft.
Harrison took to twitter to respond.
The Jaguars picked Harrison in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft and signed him to a four-year $3.38 million contract.