Nick Saban gushes about Mike Sainristil after the Commanders select him in the 2024 NFL Draft

Former Michigan defensive back Mike Sainristil came off the board with the No. 50 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on Friday, getting taken by the Washington Commanders. And he earned rave reviews from a defensive back maven: Former Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Saban, on the desk for ABC for the draft, gushed about Sainristil and how he “loves” the prospect and said “this guy may be — pound-for-pound — the best football player in this draft.”

And Saban made a point to recall that his Alabama team got to experience what Sainristil could do in a Rose Bowl loss in the 2023 College Football Playoff.

“Too bad we had to see him,” Saban said.

While Sainristil wasn’t the biggest impact defender in that game — he had six tackles, including one for loss as the Michigan defensive line generally wrecked the game — Saban praised his all-around ability to affect the game.

And he noted that if Sainristil was a little bit bigger, he probably wouldn’t have been available with the No. 50 pick. But with a diminutive stature, Saban shared that Sainristil is likely a star/nickel defender at the next level.

“He’s a good blitzer. Killed us in our game blitzing,” Saban said. “Just killed us off the edges. He’s a star, that’s what he should play — nickel.”

More on Sainristil

Sainristil originally came to Michigan as a wide receiver, the position he began his career at. He played three seasons as a wideout for the Wolverines, catching 37 passes 539 yards and five touchdowns during that span.

Ahead of the 2022 season, Michigan needed defensive back depth and coaches asked Sainristil to switch positions, a move he readily made. As playing as a nickel corner — and more generally as a movable piece in the secondary — Sainristil made massive impacts.

During the 2023 season, his ball production jumped off the charts as he finished with six interceptions — two returned for touchdowns — and six more passes defended plus a pair of forced fumbles. He also racked up 108 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss in two years playing on defense.

While he’s not big — 5-foot-9, 182 pounds at the combine — Sainristil is also a feisty and willing run defender. He’s also adept at using all of his weight and strength to wrestle down larger players, like this tackle against Washington’s Jalen McMillan (6-foot-1, 197 pounds) in the College Football Playoff title game.

Sainristil played high school football at Everett (Mass.) High School, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 590 overall recruit in the 2019 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.