Paul Finebaum shares his perception of Alabama's presence in 2024 NFL Draft

The NFL Draft has come and gone and, once again, it was loaded with talent from the Alabama Crimson Tide, with 10 players being selected from the program.

Despite that, for some people, the draft was a perceived disappointment for Alabama. After all, last year, the Crimson Tide had two players selected before their highest pick this year with JC Latham going seventh overall to the Tennessee Titans.

SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum, while making an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, pushed back on the idea that it wasn’t a good year for Alabama in the NFL Draft, sharing his perspective on the program’s presence in it.

“Obviously, when you follow the number one pick anything else will seem disappointing, but it wasn’t,” Paul Finebaum said. “I just think it showed really the recruiting power of that university for so long and the development. It’s one thing to recruit somebody. It’s another to have them prepared for that final Thursday night in April. I think we saw that.”

The 2023 season was, of course, head coach Nick Saban‘s last as the head coach at Alabama. That is going to create questions about the future under new head coach Kalen DeBoer.

“Now, the question that I think that you’ll get asked and everyone gets asked, is what’s the future look like under Kalen DeBoer? It’s not a matter of doing the same thing, because I think that is virtually impossible, but how much of that can you replicate,” Finebaum said. “I think for Kalen DeBoer it didn’t hurt that his quarterback was one of the surprise early picks in the draft.”

Washington, DeBoer’s former team, had an excellent NFL Draft. That included two top-10 picks with Michael Penix and Rome Odunze going early. In total, 10 Huskies were drafted in 2024, with seven of those picks going in the first three rounds.

That success should, in turn, help DeBoer recruit at Alabama. From there, he is a proven developer of talent that is capable of continuing the Crimson Tide’s success in the draft.

Paul Finebaum on Nick Saban’s ESPN debut

Nick Saban is making the transition to television, with him analyzing the NFL Draft for ESPN. It was a debut that Paul Finebaum made sure to praise.

“I thought he was great, really. And he was exactly the way he was on the field. He was the best at everything he was doing. He broke things down in such a concise and easy to understand way that I really wanted. I mean, he could have a long and brilliant career in broadcasting,” Finebaum said.

“The question is, how much does he want to do? But I just think it gave us, if given the opportunity, I think this was the key phrase here Cole, I think he can do whatever he wants in that field … But I think he would also be pretty good at breaking down games while they were going on.”