There was a guaranteed lock anyone could have predicted for Thursday nights, 2025 NFL Draft First Round. Alabama Football had multiple first-round selections and Auburn had zero.
When former Alabama football players Tyler Booker and Jihaad Campbell were chosen Thursday night it was the 17th consecutive Draft in which an Alabama Crimson Tide player was selected in the First Round. The Alabama football program did not earn the longest streak of first-round picks on Thursday night. The Crimson Tide passed Miami’s record of 14 consecutive Drafts a few years ago.
That longest streak in NFL Draft history was begun by Nick Saban when Andre Smith was a first-round selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. Saban had a big role in the development of Booker and Campbell. But Kalen DeBoer coached the duo in their final college seasons and their Draft success goes into DeBoer’s resume.
Just 10 college football coaches have produced 20 or more first-round selections in their head coaching careers. Only one is an active coach, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, with 20. At Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama, Saban produced 52 first-round players. Closest to Saban on the all-time list is Joe Paterno, with 33. At Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Alabama, Bear Bryant produced 19 first-round players.
Alabama Football NFL streak of plus-17 and Auburn’s NFL streak of minus-5.
The Auburn Tigers continued their own streak on Thursday night. Kevin Scarbinsky tweeted, “Auburn’s streak of zero first-round selections is at five, and the only SEC school with a longer drought is Vanderbilt, whose last first-rounder came in 2008.” Maybe it is not technically correct to define ‘plus-17’ and ‘minus-5’ as ‘polar opposites,’ but it is close to being accurate.
Auburn players with expectations of becoming an NFL first-rounder are either oblivious to or unconcerned about Auburn’s poor track record for developing NFL players. Some might say that makes the players delusional. Apparently Auburn’s 2024 and 2025 roster additions buy into the tired theme of Hugh Freeze being a college football wizard.
Auburn fans can defend their program by saying everything has changed in Alabama’s post-Saban era. It will take at least a couple more Drafts to prove that claim. So far, Kalen DeBoer is a better developer of first-round NFL players than Hugh Freeze. DeBoer’s coaching career includes only five FBS seasons. From Washington and Alabama, DeBoer has had five NFL first-rounders. Hugh Freeze has been an FBS head coach for 12 seasons. His career count of NFL first-rounders is four. All were Ole Miss players. Five NFL first-rounders after five seasons dwarfs Freeze with four after 12 seasons.