Former Alabama football player signed NFL contracts worth over $1 billion this offseason:…
Former Alabama football player signed NFL contracts worth over $1 billion this offseason:
In 2023, 72 former Alabama players appeared in NFL regular-season games, the most from one college program in one season in league history.
By the time the first week of the NFL’s 2024 season ends on Monday night, Alabama’s participation report already could be at 65 players. That’s how many former Crimson Tide players are on the active rosters of the NFL’s 32 teams, making them eligible for this week’s games.
Alabama has another 11 alumni on NFL practice squads, and each NFL team can elevate two practice-squad members to active status for each game.
Five former Tide players are starting the season on one of the reserve lists. While ineligible to play now, all are expected to return before the end of the season.
The Cleveland Browns have the most former Alabama players on their roster entering the 2024 campaign – six on the active roster and two on the practice squad. The Philadelphia Eagles also have six Tide alumni on their active roster.
By position, the former Alabama players on current NFL rosters include 20 defensive backs, 14 defensive linemen, 13 offensive linemen, 10 wide receivers, eight linebackers, eight running backs, four quarterbacks, two tight ends, one kicker and one punter.
Seventeen of the players have never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.
In 2023, Alabama football had the heaviest offensive line, based on average weight of starters, in the SEC. It wasn’t even close, the Crimson Tide weighed in at 339.4 pounds, with Vanderbilt in second place at 325.
Fast forward to 2024 and the Crimson Tide dropped to 13th, according to Beef Index data, released Thursday by AL.com. So what happened?
First of all, the Beef Index numbers take into account only Week 1 starters. For Alabama, that means losing the heaviest member of its offensive line unit, Kadyn Proctor, who was hurt in pregame warmups before the Tide faced Western Kentucky.
Had the 369-pound Proctor taken the field, Alabama’s average would have climbed to 323.6 pounds. That wouldn’t have placed the Tide back to the top of the list, but would have put it up to seventh.
Second, the unit simply slimmed down. Under new head coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, Alabama prioritized movement, bringing in transfer center Parker Brailsford, who weighs 290 pounds and having other players, like Tyler Booker, lose weight.
Alabama moved significantly year-over-year in another metric as well. The Tide climbed from 12th in the SEC in offensive line total weight to first, counting every player on the online roster.
There’s an extremely simple reason for that. Alabama went from carrying 18 to 23 offensive linemen, and thus jumped from 5,534 pounds to 7,025.
When averaging out the weights of every offensive linemen on the roster, Alabama slipped several spots from 2023. The Crimson Tide weighed in at 307.4 pounds via that metric last season, 12th in the 14-team conference, but dropped to 305.43 pounds in 2024, last in the 12-team league.
Alabama has another 11 alumni on NFL practice squads, and each NFL team can elevate two practice-squad members to active status for each game.
Five former Tide players are starting the season on one of the reserve lists. While ineligible to play now, all are expected to return before the end of the season.
The Cleveland Browns have the most former Alabama players on their roster entering the 2024 campaign – six on the active roster and two on the practice squad. The Philadelphia Eagles also have six Tide alumni on their active roster.
By position, the former Alabama players on current NFL rosters include 20 defensive backs, 14 defensive linemen, 13 offensive linemen, 10 wide receivers, eight linebackers, eight running backs, four quarterbacks, two tight ends, one kicker and one punter.
Seventeen of the players have never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.Alabama has another 11 alumni on NFL practice squads, and each NFL team can elevate two practice-squad members to active status for each game.
Five former Tide players are starting the season on one of the reserve lists. While ineligible to play now, all are expected to return before the end of the season.
The Cleveland Browns have the most former Alabama players on their roster entering the 2024 campaign – six on the active roster and two on the practice squad. The Philadelphia Eagles also have six Tide alumni on their active roster.
By position, the former Alabama players on current NFL rosters include 20 defensive backs, 14 defensive linemen, 13 offensive linemen, 10 wide receivers, eight linebackers, eight running backs, four quarterbacks, two tight ends, one kicker and one punter.
Seventeen of the players have never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.
