H2 For You: Alabama is redefining its 'NFLU' title

It’s a given. You win as much as Alabama football has and your program will be well-represented in the NFL. Enough success and you could even call it ‘NFLU,’ feats-dependent. But any self-proclaimed title must be definitive and, in this case, must be claimed by one program only under one coach only.

And, to again use definitive, its meaning of the Crimson Tide’s nationwide dominance, in college and in the pros, soon will have a different interpretation entirely.

Save innumerable pro scouts and executives who want the scoop on the next college star trading crimson and white for a new color scheme, palate preferences granted, life as NFLU for Alabama—the premier college football program then, now, and until something wipes us all from Earth—is as robotic in action as in results under coach Nick Saban.

The Tide continues to win national championships, six of the last 12, and continues to produce gobs of first round talents drafted by NFL franchises, even to the amazement of extraterrestrials waiting for the aforementioned chance to clear us all out of here.

It’s going on year 15, the Alabama football dynasty, and Saban has more first rounders drafted to the NFL than games lost. It’s August and it’s humid, but your glasses didn’t fog. You read that correctly. It’s 39 to 23.

But the trend has changed what players and positions are selected with those picks, and it follows the makeover of the Alabama offense, which has become more explosive and more entertaining than the defense-led Crimson Tide of the dynasty’s early years. It also aligns with the direction of the NFL, the pass-happy league predicated on promoting skill players most, players receiving higher salaries than ever relative to other positions.

They’re the most fun to watch, and it’s a business, so you get it.

Of Alabama’s 39 first round draft selections under Saban, and of the 29 pre-Tua Tagovailoa, 10 were either defensive linemen or linebackers, the foundations of the program until about 2017. And that’s when it changed, in both the NFL and college, and that’s when Alabama first featured the most accomplished class of wide receivers in school history, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and DeVonta Smith.

The team’s identity morphed from Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry toting about 25 carries per game in 2015, to the threesome of wide receivers and their quarterback, Tagovailoa, all arriving about a year or so later. Then Jaylen Waddle came in 2018 and founded a wide receiver quartet, and the five of them along with tight end Irv Smith Jr. and running back Josh Jacobs bashed every offensive record that had ink-dried at Alabama.

Minus Smith Jr., every one of them was a first round selection of their respective NFL draft, either in 2019, 2020, or 2021.

It was fun then, it was new, and it was exciting. No more were scores 14-10 or 17-3 sufficient, no, as that offense reset the fulcrum of Alabama football ideology from then on. But it didn’t have a choice, like I said previously, as everyone else was at least attempting the same type of thing.

The Crimson Tide just had better players executing the same type plays.

Same is, or at least should be, said of the 2020 group. Wideouts Smith and Waddle were back, and quarterback Mac Jones and running back Najee Harris, along with them (minus Waddle's season-ending injury), helped form a destructive unit best known for 'slicing and dicing,' with Harris' running style and Jones' ability to hit Alabama wide receivers in-stride.

Since the Henry days, two of six national titles removed and eight of eight first round picks and offensive skill players removed, they've all entered the NFL. And it's different now, and will continue to be, the reputation of Alabama in the NFL.

NFLU will be more evident than ever before because, as I've said, skill players on offense can deliver all goods to audiences of every platform.

Not watching the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles, the New England Patriots, or the Las Vegas Raiders, fine, check Twitter or Instagram or Facebook and you'll instantaneously see every highlight of any one of those Alabama guys. That's the new way of football, and offense still wins, too. Oh, and the eight aforementioned offensive skill players are only the first round draft picks.

When people said the Crimson Tide was falling behind the times, they were right, for a time, but now you're seeing what unfolded in Bryant-Denny Stadium and college stadiums around the country. Only this time it's in the NFL, and this time Alabama caught up, as well.

And, subsequently, NFLU is just getting started to everyone else.