Alabama Football: NFL Combine update and some Tide Draft history

Alabama football will lead the way at the NFL Combine. A few other schools have more participants but the Tide has more first-round prospects.

Ten former Alabama football players will participate in the 2020 NFL Combine. LSU with 16 former players and Ohio State with 11 have the most participation. The Crimson Tide and Georgia (also with 10) are next.

The Bengal Tigers should have the most players drafted. Alabama football is primed to create the most buzz by dominating the first-round. Five, and possibly six former Crimson Tide players could be selected in the 2020 first round.

Staggered by playing positions, Combine participants began arriving on Sunday and will continue to do so through Wednesday. The first group is wide receivers, tight ends and quarterbacks. Those players will have medicals on Monday and Tuesday, followed by interviews on Wednesday and early Thursday. Field workouts for the group will be Thursday.

The former Tide players in the first group are Tua Tagovailoa, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III. Tua will not do any of the physical tests or field work. He will be reviewed medically, though the Combine sessions will not be the last time his health will be scrutinized prior to the April Draft.

Jedrick Wills is the only former Tide player who arrives on Monday, does bench press on Thursday and on-field drills on Friday. Raekwon Davis, Anfernee Jennings and Terrell Lewis are part of the Tuesday arrival group. They will bench press on Friday and do on-field drills on Saturday.

In the last group to arrive at Indianapolis will be Xavier McKinney, Trevon Diggs and Shyheim Carter. They will bench on Saturday and do field drills on Sunday.

While Tua will draw more media attention during the Combine, Alabama football fans are also anticipating the 40-time for Henry Ruggs. Some Draft experts are predicting Ruggs to have one of the fastest times for a wideout in recent years. Chris Johnson ran a 4.24 in 2008 and John Ross ran a 4.22 in 2017. No other Combine participants have ever done a sub 4.25. If Ruggs is also a 4.2-ish guy, some team will snatch him in the first round.

No one knows what will happen with Tua, including Tua. Later medical evaluations by individual teams will be pivotal. Chris Trapasso writing for CBS has some interesting conjecture. He thinks Miami might do a trade with Washington, moving the Dolphins to the second pick. Miami would then draft Tua. Trapasso’s first-round mock has six former Alabama football players going in the first round.

If six former Crimson Tide players are selected in the first round, two records will change. It would be a new program record for Alabama football. Six would also tie Miami (2004) with the most first-round selections by any team in a single NFL Draft.