With the intensity of Alabama spring football funneling into the A-Day extravaganza and officially putting the first installment of the Crimson Tide’s offseason to bed, it means we’re inching toward the final days of April and that other springtime football treat for the Bama faithful — the NFL Draft.
It’s the stage where the very best that Alabama has to offer work so hard to hear their names belted out by the NFL commissioner. It’s the place where so many top Tide talents get to, because Bama products annually fill NFL rosters like few other programs do.
It’s the event that doesn’t include any Alabama touchdowns scored, SEC victories secured or national championships won but fills Tide fans with pride and bravado because their guys are so darn sought after at the next level. Since the NFL started holding drafts in 1936, some 90 years ago, Alabama has had a whopping 467 players selected, including 84 first-round picks and 3 No. 1 overall selections.
Tuscaloosa is a fertile breeding ground for pro talent and high-end pro talent, and while this Crimson Tide NFL Draft class might not pack quite the typical punch, this weekend’s 3-day celebration in Pittsburgh still includes plenty of Bama sizzle. Here are 5 Alabama football draft storylines to chew on as the 2026 edition gets rolling on Thursday night in the Steel City:
1. Where does Ty Simpson go and how long will he have to wait?
Simpson transformed himself into a possible first-round pick with 1 really solid season of starting quarterback play at Alabama. He could’ve easily ended up at another college football powerhouse this fall, with his lucrative offer from Miami again making major headlines, but Simpson showed his loyalty to T-Town despite deciding not to return there for the 2026 season.
He didn’t want to slap Alabama in the face that way because the place meant that much to him, and now Tide fans can officially salute Simpson when his name gets called in Pittsburgh. When exactly will that happen? Well, he’s not going to be the first quarterback taken this weekend, because the guy who beat Simpson in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, is primed to be the first overall pick by the Las Vegas Raiders.
But Crimson Tide fans shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out which NFL team stamps Simpson as its franchise quarterback. Could the Tennessee native slip out of the first round entirely, as some of the latest pre-draft rumors have been suggesting? Sure, that could very well happen, and the possibility of that just makes following Simpson’s draft plight that much more tantalizing.
As legendary ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. wrote in his most recent mock draft last weekend, Simpson’s lack of starting experience during his college career is a legitimate concern. But his body of work during that 1 season of starting at Alabama is also legit, and Kiper has Simpson stashed at the back end of Thursday night’s first round, going to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 30. The Kyler Murray era has ended in the desert, and Kiper suggests the Cards make a play for Simpson to succeed Murray.
If that happens, Bama fans wouldn’t have to wait until Friday night to see where Simpson lands, as some are now projecting. He’s probably the 2nd-best signal caller in this draft class, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It just so happens the best quarterback might also be the best overall player.
Where will Ty Simpson end up? Here’s what the latest Kalshi odds say:
Prediction Markets Team to pick Ty Simpson in 2026 NFL Draft? Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Arizona 52% New York J 18% Los Angeles R 11% Pittsburgh 9% Cleveland 8% Miami 4% Philadelphia 4% Tampa Bay 3% Houston 2% Predict2. Did Germie Bernard really turn himself into a Day 2 pick?
What about the understated wide receiver who turned into Ty Simpson’s No. 1 target at Alabama in 2025? Bernard broke through in a big way last fall, leading the Crimson Tide in catches (64) and receiving yards (862), with 7 touchdowns to go with it.
Where would the Tide have been last season without Bernard? Well, probably not in the Playoff for the 2nd season in a row under Kalen DeBoer, and now Alabama fans are about to find out how this all translates to Bernard’s draft position in Pittsburgh.
Did the Las Vegas-area kid who started his college career at Michigan State and Washington before coming to T-Town play his way into being a Day 2 selection? He caught 50 balls for 794 yards during his first season at Bama in 2024, so it wasn’t like what he did last year was a complete shock, and that kind of consistent production might just be attractive enough for Bernard to be a Friday night selection.
According to a report last week by NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the Atlanta Falcons met with Bernard, with the team holding the No. 48 overall pick. That’s solid second round territory, and Bernard was recently ranked 49th on PFF’s 2026 big board. A Day 2 NFL dream realized seems well within reach for the 6-foot-1 pass catcher who helped lead the Tide to the Playoff quarterfinals last season.
3. Will Jam Miller even hear his name called by the end of Saturday?
At this time last year, Miller was thought of as the guy who was going to carry the Alabama running game to some great heights in 2025. But things happened, and not good things. Miller injured his collarbone during fall camp, he didn’t make his season debut until Week 5, and it was just a constant struggle thereafter between nagging injuries and general ineffectiveness.
Miller managed just 504 yards rushing for the season, which actually led the Crimson Tide but represented a massive disappointment for a player who rushed for 668 yards in 2024 and was primed for a complete breakout. His yards per carry average plummeted from 4.6 to 3.9, and he only found the end zone 3 times last season after scoring 7 touchdowns in 2024.
Yes, Miller proved to be an NFL Combine revelation in late February, when he dazzled scouts with an official 4.42 time in the 40-yard dash, which was the 4th-best mark among running backs at the Combine. That 40 time alone could very well mean Miller will hear his name called at the draft after all, most likely on Day 3, but naturally there are no guarantees.
Miller might not have been easy to root for last season for Alabama fans, but at the draft, after everything he went through in 2025, his bumpy road to the precipice of his NFL dream could really use a soft landing somewhere.
4. Who will be the first Alabama defensive player to come off the board?
Let’s face it, Alabama’s 2026 draft class is headlined by the guys on the offensive side of the ball. There is offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor, there is quarterback Ty Simpson and there is wide receiver Germie Bernard. If what is expected to happen actually happens in Pittsburgh, then that trio should be the first 3 Alabama names to come off the board, whether on Thursday night or Friday night.
And let’s also face it, that means this group of potential Bama draftees doesn’t contain the usual barnstormers on the defensive side of the ball who are sure to become stars at the NFL level. And that’s OK. So, after Proctor, Simpson and Bernard are drafted, quite possibly in that order, who will be the first Crimson Tide defensive player to be selected?
That honor will likely come down to a quartet of names, and obviously Alabama can’t claim safety Caleb Downs this weekend, even if he did spend his breakout freshman season playing on Nick Saban‘s final Crimson Tide team in 2023. Downs belongs to Ohio State, which means the first Bama defensive player to be taken in this draft could come down to either edge rusher LT Overton or defensive tackle Tim Keenan III.
Overton and Keenan are more than likely to find themselves waiting until Day 3 to hear their names called, with both talents falling somewhere in the fourth or fifth round. So, maybe a Tide defensive player doesn’t come off the board until early on Saturday?
The other 2 Bama defensive names to keep an eye on are linebackers Justin Jefferson and Deontae Lawson, a pair of tackling machines in Tuscaloosa who just happened to finish 1-2 in tackles for the Tide last season. Lawson piled up a team-high 80 tackles, with Jefferson right behind him at 79, but both players are almost assuredly Day 3-caliber prospects looking to prove teams who passed on them wrong.
Very rarely do the first 2 days of the draft roll by without an Alabama defensive player being selected, but that scenario could very well play out this weekend.
5. Can Alabama keep its streak alive of having multiple first-round picks?
The annually stacked Crimson Tide don’t just dip their toes in the water when it comes to the first round of the NFL Draft. For 9 straight years now, Alabama has had multiple first-round picks in the same draft class.
And the last year the Tide didn’t achieve at least 2 first-round picks, in the 2016 draft, came with a caveat. Because exactly a decade ago, an Alabama player was taken 18th overall, and that was it for the first round. But the next 2 Crimson Tide products were grabbed pretty soon after the first round, at No. 41 and No. 45, with the latter selection being a guy named Derrick Henry.
So, you could certainly say Bama still had multiple-pick, first-round quality in 2016 even when it didn’t officially happen. The Tide were coming off a national championship in 2015 that was led by Henry, so there was loads of Alabama talent to be had at that draft.
As the 2026 draft gets ready to start on Thursday night, that first-round, multiple-pick streak is in some jeopardy. Last week, ESPN insider Field Yates published his own ranking of the top 150 prospects in this year’s draft class. Only 4 Alabama players made Yates’ list, and realistically there are just 2 Tide products, offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor and quarterback Ty Simpson, who could be picked in the first round.
Yates had Proctor ranked 14th, and Proctor would seem to be destined for the first round. The wild card, of course, is Simpson, who Yates had as his No. 29 draft prospect. If Simpson stays in the first round, The Streak likely lives on. If he slips out of the first round, that proud streak likely goes up in smoke. If the latter does happen, it’s not the end of the world, but it is something for Alabama fans to lock in on come Thursday night.
5 Alabama football storylines to chew on at the 2026 NFL Draft Saturday Down South.
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