Alabama and Ohio State tied for sending the most players into the NFL via the 2021 NFL Draft last week. But when it comes to the draft’s bottom line, the Crimson Tide practically lapped every other college program this year.
The 10 players selected from Alabama during the 86th NFL Draft will sign contracts worth $135,671,054. The bottom line for Florida, the No. 2 college program in the value of its drafted players’ contracts, came to $71,333,903. Eight Gators were drafted this year.
Alabama won the draft’s bottom-line title for the third time in four years. Last year, the Crimson Tide finished second to LSU, which set an SEC record by having 14 players picked in the 2020 draft.
The bottom-line standings are a ranking of the total value of the contracts that will be signed by each college program’s draft class as the players enter the NFL.
Each drafted player receives a four-year contract. The values of those contracts are based on the NFL’s salary cap of $182.5 million for the 2021 season and this year’s rookie compensation pool in a formula spelled out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its players association. That makes it possible to calculate the money allotted to each draft slot (and the sports financial web site spotrac.com has done so).
Alabama’s 10 draft picks in 2021 will sign for more money than LSU’s 14 did last year. The Tigers’ total for 2020 was $124,058,909.
This year’s contracts range from a total value of $36,793,488 for the No. 1 pick – Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars -- to $3,556,245 for the final pick – Houston linebacker Grant Stuard, who was chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 259. Lawrence’s signing bonus of around $24.119 million will be worth more than the total value of all but five other rookie contracts this year.
Because the value of the contracts decreases throughout the draft, the colleges with the most players picked aren’t always at the top of the bottom-line standings.
NFL DRAFT INCLUDES 21 FROM STATE, 65 FROM SEC
The 10 colleges with the most players picked in the 2021 NFL Draft were (each with the number of players chosen and its finish in the bottom-line standings):
1. Alabama: 10 (first in the bottom-line standings)
1. Ohio State: 10 (fourth)
3. Georgia: 9 (sixth)
3. Notre Dame: 9 (eighth)
5. Florida: 8 (second)
5. Michigan: 8 (11th)
7. LSU: 7 (fifth)
8. Kentucky: 6 (13th)
8. Penn State: 6 (ninth)
8. Pittsburgh: 6 (21st)
The 10 colleges whose players will sign for the most money include:
1. Alabama: $135,671,054 by 10 players
2. Florida: $71,333,903 by eight players
3. Clemson: $65,761,588 by five players
4. Ohio State: $60,053,244 by 10 players
5. LSU: $55,862,421 by seven players
6. Georgia: $53,139,801 by nine players
7. BYU: $50,997,640 by five players
8. Notre Dame: $46,508,563 by nine players
9. Penn State: $45,159,239 by six players
10. Oregon: $43,822,229 by five players
Alabama tied an NFL Draft record by having six players picked in the first round on Thursday night and provided eight of the first 38 selections in this year’s draft.
WHY DID MIAMI PICK JAYLEN WADDLE OVER DEVONTA SMITH?
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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