What's the secret to getting a huge payday in the NFL? Getting recruited to Alabama's football team is a good start.
There's no secret recipe to becoming a financially successful NFL player, but if history is any indication, playing ball at Alabama will probably increase any recruit's chances of securing his bag in the future.
So far this summer, four big-name Crimson Tide players have signed lucrative extensions. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts got his five-year deal worth $255 million including incentives, Commanders' Daron Payne got a four-year deal worth $90 million, Jets' Quinnen Williams got $96 million, and Cowboys' Trevon Diggs recently got his $97 million.
Combined, those four former Alabama players have signed extensions that amount to $538 million in total, more than half a billion.
Not as much as what French soccer player Kylian Mbappe would have made in Saudi Arabia, but still a nice chunk of change.
Alabama alums get massive extensions this summer amounting to more than half a billion
For decades, Alabama has fairly deep roots in the NFL having established themselves as one of the toughest powerhouses in the country. Whereas some teams have a clear preference for certain schools (i.e. the Eagles drafting Georgia Bulldogs), Alabama's alums have spread out across the league.
Of them all, Hurts may be the one getting the most recognition he deserves; Hurts won one national championship under Nick Saban and set several rushing records in the process.
Hurts and the three other Alabama alumni who got extended were only the most recent Crimson Tide stars to secure their financial futures. Who could join them in the coming years?
There's honestly too many to count. Mac Jones, Josh Jacobs, and Tua Tagovailoa come to mind first; Patrick Surtain, Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, and Jonah Williams could also play their way into a monster payday.
As for the far-off future, Alabama saw three players get picked in the first round of the 2023 draft: Bryce Young, Will Anderson, and Jahmyr Gibbs.
Those guys have a long way to go before proving their worth in the league, yet they follow a path paved by gold by the many successful Crimson Tide players ahead of them.
