After leading all schools with four first-round picks Thursday night, Alabama had just one player selected on Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Safety Ronnie Harrison was the only Crimson Tide player to hear his name called Friday as he had to wait until the No. 93 overall pick where he was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Harrison is the fifth Alabama player selected in this year’s draft, joining Minkah Fitzpatrick (No. 11, Miami Dolphins), Da'Ron Payne (No. 13, Washington Redskins), Rashaan Evans (No. 22, Tennessee Titans) and Calvin Ridley (No. 26, Atlanta Falcons) were all selected during the first round Thursday night.
Harrison earned All-SEC honors from The Associated Press last season after finishing tied with a team-leading 74 tackles. He tallied 4.5 of those stops for a loss and added 2.5 sacks. Harrison was equally deadly in coverage as he finished tied for second on the team with three interceptions while tallying four pass breakups.
Last year, Alabama had nine players drafted in the first three rounds, all coming in the first 79 picks. This year was the first draft Alabama failed to have a player selected in Round 2 since the 2011 draft. In that draft, the Crimson Tide had four players — Marcell Dareus, Julio Jones, James Carpenter and Mark Ingram — selected in the first round but had to wait until the seventh round until seventh round until Greg McElroy went off the board.
Alabama most likely won’t have to wait that long for its next selection this year as the Crimson Tide has several players waiting in the wings. Defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand and cornerback Anthony Averett were both projected as Day 2 selections and should come off the board early on Saturday. Running back Bo Scarbrough and cornerbacks Tony Brown and Levi Wallace are also two players to watch.
Harrison was the second Alabama defensive back taken in the draft. The record for most defensive backs taken from one school in the NFL draft is four. Alabama would break that if Averett, Brown and Wallace were all selected on Saturday.
The NFL Draft concludes Saturday with rounds 4-7 beginning at 11 a.m. CT. It will be televised on ESPN and NFL Network and can also be streamed on WatchESPN, NFL.com and Fox Sports Go.
