In the shadow of the final game of their Alabama careers, four players were invited to a news conference emceed by Nick Saban at the Mal Moore Athletic Complex.
It was there where the world learned that Quinnen Williams, Jonah Williams, Josh Jacobs and Irv Smith Jr. had decided to enter the NFL Draft.
Fifteen weeks later, each one of those Crimson Tide stars was chosen in the first two rounds — going anywhere from Pick No. 3 to Selection No. 50.
They got their face time on television, and soon enough they’ll also have big signing bonuses thanks to their high slots in the rookie wage scale. As they celebrated their newfound fame and fortune, a few of their former teammates suffered in silence, watching and waiting for their names to be called before coming to the sobering realization that it just wasn’t going to happen. Three rounds had passed and 102 players filled the draft board by the end of Day 2. But safety Deionte Thompson, linebacker Mack Wilson and cornerback Saivion Smith were nowhere to be found among the list of selections.
Once again they were excluded from the party just like they were back in January when the three former Crimson Tide defenders were conspicuously absent at that draft declaration news conference hosted by Saban.
It was not by coincidence.
Saban will usually only celebrate the players he gives his blessing to go pro, and it was clear Wilson, Thompson and Smith didn’t receive that endorsement.
Saban has long made the case that if a player with remaining eligibility isn’t projected to be chosen within the first two rounds he is better served returning to school and improving his stock. Before this year, 24 of Alabama's 31 early entrants during Saban’s tenure had been selected within that range, a 77-percent hit rate.
One of the seven who wasn’t, former safety Ronnie Harrison, has become the example Saban uses most often when making the argument that players only hurt themselves when they leave to go pro before they’ve maximized their potential. Earlier this month, the Alabama coach — in the most oblique way possible — questioned the decision Harrison made last year when he bypassed his senior season, entered the draft and was picked in the third round by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Saban had tried to persuade Harrison to remain in Tuscaloosa for one more year just as he had successfully done in similar conversations with players who came before him — namely Mark Barron, Jonathan Allen and Reuben Foster.
The difference was that Harrison didn’t heed Saban’s advice.
“If you look at the number of guys that were first- and second-round draft picks, there were very few guys that had failed careers,” Saban said April 6. “Now, we have guys that have no draft grades, seventh-round grades, free-agent grades, fifth-round grades that are going out of the draft. And the person that loses in that is the player.
“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’s going to play for that kind of money for three more years. And everybody out there’s saying, ‘Well, get to your next contract.’ Well, there’s obviously 50 percent of these guys that never get to a next contract. And that doesn’t mean all the rest of them got to one, either.”
Saban used Harrison to illustrate his point. But the fiery safety landed in a better spot than where Thompson, Smith and Wilson are destined to go once the final four rounds of the draft are completed Saturday.
Together, these three men could prove to be cautionary tales who force future Alabama stars contemplating an early start to their NFL careers to consider Saban’s counsel more carefully before making a choice that could have negative consequences both for the player and the program.
For Thompson, Smith and Wilson, it’s not what they envisioned when they elected to chase their NFL dreams.
But as they rued their fates Friday, Saban went to bed knowing that months after that draft announcement news conference he was proven right yet again.
Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin
https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2019/04/as-three-ex-alabama-players-lost-out-in-the-nfl-draft-nick-saban-won-yet-again.html
2019-04-27 12:01:00Z
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