INDIANAPOLIS – Alabama has nearly 400 selected in the NFL draft and only one of them has done what the former left-wing Crimson Tide has a chance to do next month: to become first overall.
Neil is among a handful of potential customers – including NC State Ikem left-back Ickey Ekwonu, Michigan champions Aiden Hutchinson and Oregon midfielder Kaiwon Thibodeau – who could hear their names when Jackson Jaguars opened the NF’s 28th NF Draft. If that happens, it will stop Alabama’s series from being No. 1 overall for 74 years.
The last time this happened was in 1948, when Washington chose quarterback / halfback Harry Gilmer and Neil to be the player to break the series, with all the elite talent the program has created in its history would be monumental.
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Alabama quarterback Joe Namat was first overall in 1965 in the AFL Draft from the New York Jets.
“That would mean everything,” Neil said Thursday at the NFL Scout Factory. “You have a lot of players from Alabama who deserve a place in № 1, and for me that would be very special. I feel that the whole state of Alabama will be proud. I would definitely be proud of the University of Alabama. “
Alabama has 39 players taken in the first round of the last 13 drafts, including a record six last year, but no one has climbed higher than third. Buffalo chose a defensive game against Marcel Dareus in 2011, and Cleveland chose defender Trent Richardson in 2012.
In the last two drafts alone, Crimson Tide had 10 players in the first round.
Crimson Tide has selected 375 players since the start of the 1936 draft, and Gilmer was the only one taken first overall – and only two players were selected second overall: quarterback Riley Smith in 1936 from Boston and midfielder Cornelius Bennett from Indianapolis. Colts in 1987
ESPN NFL draft analyst Todd McShee made the Jaguars take Neil in his model after the Super Bowl. ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Cyprus Jr. made Neil finish third overall after Houston Texas in his latest model, which was released on Tuesday.