Ronnie Harrison responds to Nick Saban’s comments about leaving early for NFL Draft

On Saturday, Nick Saban was asked if he can tell a difference with his team during spring practice after players leave early for the NFL Draft.

Of course, Saban said he could and that every team can. Then, Saban went on a four-minute dive into players leaving early for the NFL Draft. You can watch all of his comments here.

During the four minutes, Saban — without naming names — said the following about a specific third round draft pick from Alabama in 2018.

“Now, we have guys that have no draft grades, seventh-round grades, free-agent grades, fifth-round grades that are going out to the draft. And the person that loses in that is the player,” Saban said. “If you’re a third-round draft pick, and we had one here last year — I’m not going to say any names — goes and starts for his team, so he’s making third-round money, which is not that great. He’d be the first guy taken at his position this year, probably, and make $15-18 million more. So, the agent makes out, the club makes out, and now they’ve got a guy that is going to play for that kind of money for three more years, aight.”

Without saying Ronnie Harrison’s name — Harrison was Alabama’s only third-round pick, Saban implied that Harrison would have been better to stay at Alabama and enter the NFL Draft this year as opposed to last year, where he was a third-round pick. We can debate whether or not that’s criticism, but Saban is saying that should he have stayed, he would be making much more money as a higher pick and that he essentially left a lot of money on the table.

Harrison took to social media about the comments, and he wasn’t happy.

Coaches get so Butt Hurt Now Days About a Kid Making a Decision to live out his dreams and Go Pro. Makes me think do you really care about the success of the kid or how well your program performs? 🤷🏿‍♂️💯 #KeepMyNameOutYaMouth #Bama #Saban #GodGotIt

— Ronnie Harrison II (@Rharr_15) April 7, 2019

The Jaguars picked Harrison in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft and signed him to a four-year $3.38 million contract that included a signing bonus of $803,032. He eventually won the starting safety job, but his season was cut short due to a knee injury. He finished his rookie season with 32 tackles, one sack, three passes defended and one INT.

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.