Alabama Quarterbacks in the NFL Suck Since Nick Saban Took Over

With five national championships to his name, Nick Saban is the greatest coach in Alabama Crimson Tide history. He's possibly the best the NCAA has ever seen, and in this year's NFL Draft, his fingerprints can be seen on a number of top-tier players.

In particular, Tua Tagovailoa is one of the best quarterback prospects to come out of Alabama in years.

However, Saban's track record with quarterbacks should cause some concern among NFL fans. For all his success, he has yet a produce a pro-ready quarterback.

It starts with John Patrick Wilson. It's a little unfair, because Saban inherited the guy after taking the rains from Mike Shula. However, Saban did win the Independence Bowl with Wilson. After leaving Bama, Saban's first signal caller went undrafted, and bounced around on a few practice squads. One of his landing spots was Jacksonville where, he did make the active roster...for three days. Wilson was the first of many failures.

The first player that was his through-and-through was Greg McElroy. McElroy helped start the dynasty. He and Saban won the BCS Championship in the 2009 season, which ignited Saban's flame in his new home. Unfortunately, McElroy didn't share in any subsequent success. He only played in two games with the New York Jets after being drafted in the seventh round.

Things moved on to possibly the most disappointing player to come out of Saban's regime. A.J. McCarron won back-to-back BCS Championships in his first two years as a starter. He threw for 9,019 yards and 77 touchdowns at Alabama, but in the NFL, he's been relegated to backup positions for all six of his years in the NFL. In that time, he's started in only four games.

Blake Sims had the unenviable task of following McCarron as a senior in 2013, and he did remarkably well. He stacked up 3,487 yards and 28 touchdowns in his single season as a starter. Sims went on to play in the Canadian Football League and in Australia until 2016, when he found his way into the NFL on Atlanta's practice squad. Most recently, he was selected by the Birmingham Iron in the Alliance of American Football, and well, we all know how that went.

Jake Coker took over from there. He had a 3,000 yard season in 2015 and led the Tide to a National Championship. That's about it for Coker. He spent the summer of 2016 trying to make the Arizona Cardinals' roster and failed. A knee injury has kept him from playing again.

Here's where it gets really interesting. Jalen Hurts assumed the mantle after Coker and led the team to back-to-back national championships. He won the first one, but in the second, Tua took over. In the 2018 season, Tagovailoa led the team for the majority of the year, prompting Hurts to transfer to Oklahoma, where threw for 3,851 yards. It's hard to say if Hurts counts as a Saban quarterback, but it's sure to sting extra hard if Tagovailoa turns out like the others and Hurts is successful.

For now, there's not much of a positive track record to hang your hat on. At least Saban's final QB at LSU did well at the next level! Jamarcus Russ--oh.