Happy Monday, everyone. It was a fine weekend on the diamonds, as both the softball team and the baseball team swept Mizzou.
The NFL Draft wrapped up on Saturday, and seven total Alabama players heard their names called.
OL Tyler Booker: First round, No. 12 overall to Dallas Cowboys
LB Jihaad Campbell: First round, No. 31 overall to Philadelphia Eagles
QB Jalen Milroe: Third round, No. 92 overall to Seattle Seahawks
DB Malachi Moore: Fourth round, No. 130 to New York Jets
LB Que Robinson: Fourth round, No. 134 to Denver Broncos
TE Robbie Ouzts: Fifth round, No. 175 to Seattle Seahawks
DL Tim Smith: Sixth round, No. 190 to Indianapolis Colts
This was the 14th consecutive season that Alabama had at least seven draftees. Congratulations to all of those who will get to pursue their professional dreams, including those who signed as undrafted free agents.
Jalen Milroe was the Tide player most followed throughout the process. He ended up going in the third round to the Seattle Seahawks, who seem quite happy to get him.
“Quarterbacks that can extend the play are incredibly difficult to defend,” Macdonald said. “The worst feeling in the world is when you play the first (part) of the play perfectly on defense and you defend it, and you go ‘all right, sweet. We did it.’ And the guy still has the ball — you gotta defend the next play and sometimes the third play … it’s not a fun existence to live in. He (Milroe) has that ability.”
Macdonald said that he anticipates Darnold taking about 90% of the Seahawks’ snaps this season, but that Milroe may earn time on the field for specific situations. Milroe said that it was ideal having a veteran in the quarterbacks room that he can learn from.
We’ve heard similar lamentations from Nick Saban through the years. It has to be frustrating to win the play on schedule then lose it off schedule because the QB is a better athlete than your linebacker. And, of course, a player with gamebreaking ability at the position requires a spy which improves the numbers on the back end. He still has to read the defense and get the ball out on time and accurately, and Jalen has plenty to prove in those areas.
Jihaad Campbell fell further than most pundits expected, but what a situation he now finds himself in.
Eagles first-round draft pick Jihaad Campbell was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, and as he made his trip to the Eagles’ facility after the draft, he realized what a special moment it was in his life.
“When I was on the plane, I was looking like, ‘Dang, I’m really back home.’ That’s when it hit me. I was like, ‘OK. All right,” Campbell said, via the Eagles’ website. “I’m really excited to be an Eagle.”
Campbell talked about how his father and grandfather raised him to be an Eagles fan, and especially how happy he was for his grandfather to get to experience the draft with him in Green Bay.
“I thought he was about to faint, but he was definitely lit, though. I was super happy and excited that he got to watch that moment and that I got to cherish that moment with him,” Campbell said.
The Eagles had the luxury of taking the best player available, and Campbell was easily that at the end of the first round. This may well be the start of a ten year career with the home team for him.
Looking ahead to the next draft, one fellow may be the single biggest key to Alabama’s success in 2025.
Kadyn Proctor
Proctor is entering his third season starting at left tackle for Alabama. He improved from his freshman to sophomore season and will be expected to dominate in 2025.
The junior has the size and has continued to get stronger throughout his time at Alabama. He’ll need to make another jump in that department this year but certainly has the potential to do so.
Alabama has sent plenty of dominant offensive linemen to the NFL. Should Proctor step up his game once again, he could be the next one.
Proctor was one of those dudes who was supposed to be a no brainer top ten pick three years removed from high school. He is now entering year three, and has shown flashes of that ability but needs to be more consistent. If he can get there, Alabama’s offense should click with the weapons available to whoever wins the QB job.
While this weekend was about the guys who left the program, a statement was also made by the guys who stayed, as Alabama was the only team in the SEC that didn’t lose a single player to the spring portal.
Alabama would not be retaining all of its talent, whether it be the starting quarterback or a third-string offensive tackle, if it was struggling to compensate athletes.
Good roster retention just doesn’t happen these days if you have bad NIL infrastructure.
That’s not to say Alabama’s rolling in all this extra cash and paying all of these players more than any other school. But this much roster retention would indicate Alabama’s ability to compensate athletes sits in a healthy spot, whether it be through future revenue sharing (expected to be made possible this fall through the House settlement) or through facilitating NIL deals.
Mix solid compensation with relationship building and development, and players are more inclined to stick around. So they did.
Sad that this is rare, but happy that it happened.
Lotzeir Brooks drew a ton of praise at receiver during spring camp, but another freshman wideout is looking good too.
Brooks isn’t the only freshman wide receiver with the potential to show out for Alabama in 2025. The Crimson Tide is getting taller throughout the position group, and Meadows, who joins from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, is no exception.
The 6-foot-5, 208-pound Brooks turned heads immediately during spring practice.
“Derek, when you look at him out there, you can pick him out anywhere, right?” DeBoer said in March. “He’s long and has a presence about him. I saw a one-on-one rep today that was really neat to see him use his body. Sometimes guys that are like that, they’ve got that presence, but they don’t use it. And he used it. Really got a long wingspan, so just get the ball in the vicinity, and he’ll come down with it.”
People melted down when Caleb Odom transferred after making very little contribution last season, but Meadows is basically a clone of his physically.
Kalen Deboer is in hot pursuit of an elite in-state defender in the 2026 class.
“We’re really chill, laid back,” Jones said. “We just built relationships, basically. That’s the main part: building relationships and keeping in touch with people.”
Jones said this is the approach Alabama has taken, going from a program that “didn’t know anybody” – with head coach Kalen DeBoer arriving before last season –in the state to a program he is seriously considering, helped by the “father-son relationship” he has cultivated with Crimson Tide outside linebackers coach Christian Robinson, with whom Jones said he talks every week.
“They are talking about national championships,” Jones said of Alabama. “Like we need key pieces, like me, other players in my class, just to get back up to that stage.”
A player who decided not to prepare for the NFL Draft, despite first enrolling in college in 2019, has won an injunction that will allow him to play in 2025.
“[Elad] did not go through any of the pro—all the NFL things that lead up to the draft. He did not go through pro day,” Schiano testified in a recent court hearing. “He did not have the opportunity to be invited to the combine. He did none of that, under the impression that he was going to be able to play another season of college football.”
Schiano’s testimony helped to persuade Quraishi that an eligibility rule denying Elad a chance to ply his trade is problematic under antitrust law. This is a body of law that protects market competition—including the selling of athletes’ services to teams–and can be used to challenge restrictions on commercial opportunities.
Elad began his college football career in 2019, though his first two seasons included a redshirt year and a year largely lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rutgers is Elad’s fourth school, and he previously played at Ohio University, Garden City Community College in Kansas and UNLV. Elad has attributed his nomadic collegiate path as reflecting a lack of preparedness for college life, injuries, coaching schemes, and rebuilding his football career at a junior college in hopes of returning to D-I and getting on the radar of NFL teams. If Elad’s junior college season at Garden City counts toward his NCAA eligibility, he’s ineligible since he played four seasons (2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024) in five years (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024).
Last, we may have the first lawsuit from a collective seeking damages from a player for breach of contract.
In an unprecedented move in the NIL era of college sports, the parent company overseeing the Arkansas Edge collective has hired noted sports attorney Tom Mars to enforce buyout provisions in NIL contracts at Arkansas, Blueprint Sports CEO Rob Sine confirmed Saturday to CBS Sports. The collective is following the orders of Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek, who directed the collective to pursue buyout money in contracts broken by players in an insistent statement released Tuesday, just two hours after Iamaleava entered the transfer portal.
The two former Arkansas players targeted in the initial legal efforts are Iamaleava and former receiver Dazmin James, sources told CBS Sports. A meeting between Iamaleava’s representatives and Blueprint Sports’ legal team is expected early this week.
Should be interesting.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
