Alabama’s NFL Draft: Second round yields Hall of Fame picks

NFL teams have chosen 60 players from Alabama with the 33rd through 64th selections in the draft, the picks that will make up the second round of the 90th NFL Draft on April 24 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Two of those players are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and there might be at least one more among them who is on the way.

The Oakland Raiders picked quarterback Ken Stabler at No. 52 in 1968, and the Miami Dolphins chose center Dwight Stephenson at No. 48 in 1980.

Those turned out to be Hall of Fame selections.

The Tennessee Titans took Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry at No. 45 in the 2016 NFL Draft after he had won the 2015 Heisman Trophy. Nine seasons into his NFL career, Henry ranks 19th in rushing yards and sixth in rushing touchdowns in NFL history.

The Alabama players who have been picked with the 33rd through 64th selections in the NFL Draft include:

No. 33 picks: George Hecht, guard, Chicago Cardinals, 1943; Mike Fracchia, back, St. Louis Cardinals, 1963; DeMeco Ryans, linebacker, Houston Texans, 2006; Landon Collins, defensive back, New York Giants, 2015.

Ryans earned the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2006, Collins made first-team All-Pro in his second season and Hecht and Fracchia played in a total of two games. Both belong to Hecht, whose two games with the Chicago Rockets of the All-American Football Conference came four years after he was drafted by Chicago’s “other” team.

No. 34 picks: Walt Merrill, tackle, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1940; John Wozniak, guard, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1948; Cam Robinson, offensive tackle, Jacksonville Jaguars, 2017.

Wozniak shunned Pittsburgh to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-American Football Conference. His NFL career ended in 1952, when, in the only season of the NFL’s Dallas Texans, he earned second-team All-Pro recognition. But Wozniak wasn’t finished with football. He played four more seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union, which in 1958 joined the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union to form the Canadian Football League.

Merrill also had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but he spent three seasons with the NFL version of that team.

When available, Robinson was the Jaguars’ left offensive tackle, with 91 starts in 91 games, before a trade sent him to the Minnesota Vikings for the final 10 games of the 2024 season.

No. 35 picks: Kevin Lee, wide receiver, New England Patriots, 1994; Courtney Upshaw, linebacker, Baltimore Ravens, 2012.

A broken jaw cost Lee his entire rookie season, and after eight receptions for 107 yards in 1995, New England released him. Lee played in two games with the San Francisco 49ers in 1996 for his final NFL appearances. But he had stints with the St. Louis Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars without playing and got on the field with the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe before winding up back home with the Mobile Admirals of the Regional Football League in 1999. Lee had been a prep star at Vigor.

Upshaw was a Super Bowl winner in his rookie season, which ended with Baltimore’s 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The former Eufaula High School standout returned to the Super Bowl with Atlanta, but the Falcons lost to the New England Patriots 34-28 in overtime to cap the 2016 campaign.

No. 36 picks: George Thornton, defensive tackle, San Diego Chargers, 1991; T.J. Yeldon, running back, Jacksonville Jaguars, 2015; Xavier McKinney, safety, New York Giants, 2020.

Thornton’s career came to a premature end when he suffered a stroke during the 1993 season.

Yeldon ran for 2,005 yards and six touchdowns and caught 185 passes for 1,448 yards and seven touchdowns in 60 games in six seasons.

Two of McKinney’s four NFL seasons have been affected by injuries. In the other two, he’s been one of the league’s most active defenders, and that landed him a four-year, $67 million contract last month in free agency with Green Bay, and he repaid the Packers by earning first-team All-Pro recognition in 2024.

No. 37 pick: Landon Dickerson, center, Philadelphia Eagles, 2021.

Dickerson received Pro Bowl recognition as the Eagles’ left guard in his second and third seasons, then signed a four-year, $84 million contract extension. That was followed by another Pro Bowl season and a Super Bowl ring as a member of the 2024 NFL championship team.

No. 38 pick: Christian Barmore, defensive tackle, New England Patriots, 2021.

Barmore earned a spot on the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team and earned a contract extension after three seasons. But his fourth season was derailed by a health issue with blood clots in 2024.

No. 39 pick: Larry Roberts, defensive end, San Francisco 49ers, 1986.

Roberts spent all eight of his NFL seasons with San Francisco and won two Super Bowl rings with the 49ers.

No. 40 picks: Ray Ogden, tight end, St. Louis Cardinals, 1965; Bob Baumhower, nose tackle, Miami Dolphins, 1977; David Palmer, wide receiver, Minnesota Vikings, 1994.

Ogden was the first player to play for both New Orleans and Atlanta. In New Orleans’ inaugural season, Odgen played two games for the Saints in 1967 and finished his season by playing in seven games for the Falcons.

Baumhower earned five Pro Bowl invitations in his nine seasons as a Miami starter, was a first-team All-Pro pick in 1983 and played in two Super Bowls.

Palmer was the first player with 1,000 receiving yards in a season at Alabama, and he finished third in the balloting for the 1993 Heisman Trophy. In seven seasons with the Vikings, Palmer caught 162 passes for 1,610 yards, and he has more punt-return and more kickoff-return yards in the NFL than any other Alabama alumnus.

No. 41 pick: Reggie Ragland, linebacker, Buffalo Bills, 2016; Kool-Aid McKinstry, cornerback, New Orleans Saints, 2024.

Ragland never played for Buffalo after suffering a knee injury in training camp that caused him to miss his rookie season. Traded to Kansas City in 2017, Ragland earned a Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs in 2019. The former Bob Jones High School standout played for the Detroit Lions in 2020, New York Giants in 2021 and Cleveland Browns in 2022.

McKinstry started nine games as a rookie.

No. 42 pick: Cornelius Griffin, defensive tackle, New York Giants, 2000.

Among Alabama alumni who were strictly defensive linemen, Griffin’s 130 NFL starts rank second only to Marty Lyons’ 135. Griffin led the NFL in tackles for loss with 21 in 2004.

No. 43 picks: Billy Neighbors, guard, Washington Redskins, 1962; Roman Harper, defensive back, New Orleans Saints, 2006.

Both No. 43 picks were all-stars. Neighbors was All-AFL for the Boston Patriots in 1964 after taking the “other” league’s offer in 1962. Harper earned Pro Bowl invitations with New Orleans in 2009, when the Saints won the Super Bowl, and 2010.

No. 44 picks: Kavanaugh Francis, center, Detroit Lions, 1936; Cyrus Kouandjio, tackle, Buffalo Bills, 2014; John Metchie III, 2022, Houston Texans.

Francis was the third Alabama player picked in an NFL Draft, following Riley Smith and Paul “Bear” Bryant in the inaugural event, but he never played in the NFL. Kouandjio played in 30 games in five seasons. And Metchie didn’t play in his rookie season. But after overcoming acute promyelocytic leukemia, the wide receiver has 40 receptions for 254 yards and one touchdown in 29 games for the Texans.

No. 45 pick: Derrick Henry, running back, Tennessee Titans, 2016; Brian Branch, defensive back, Detroit Lions.

Henry won the Heisman Trophy in 2015 by running for an SEC-record 2,219 yards and 28 touchdowns and joined the Titans as a second-round draft choice – 17 spots behind where Alabama’s first Heisman winner, Mark Ingram, went in the draft in 2011. In two NFL seasons backing up DeMarco Murray, Henry ran for 1,234 yards. Without Murray on the Titans, Henry ran for 1,059 yards in 2018, when he broke the second 99-yard run from scrimmage in NFL history, then posted a league-leading 1,540 rushing yards in 2019 and became the eighth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season in 2020. A broken foot in 2021 likely cost Henry a third straight rushing title. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, he was the runner-up for the rushing crown.

Branch’s performance as a rookie helped the Lions reach the NFC Championship Game for the 2023 season. He had three interceptions (with one returned for a touchdown) and 74 tackles while playing slot corner and safety. With four more interceptions in 2024, Branch was a Pro Bowl safety.

No. 46 picks: Sherman Williams, running back, Dallas Cowboys, 1995; Justin Smiley, guard, San Francisco 49ers, 2004; A’Shawn Robinson, defensive tackle, Detroit Lions, 2016.

Williams was a member of the Dallas team that won the Super Bowl for the 1995 season, and Robinson earned a Super Bowl ring with the Los Angeles Rams in the 2021 season. Smiley wasn’t as fortunate. In seven NFL seasons, he never played on a playoff team.

No. 47 pick: Phidarian Mathis, defensive tackle, Washington Commanders, 2022.

Washington picked Mathis even though it already had two Crimson Tide defensive tackles in its starting lineup with Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. Mathis suffered a torn meniscus on the third snap of his rookie season, and the knee injury caused him to miss the rest of the campaign. In his second season, a preseason calf injury kept him sidelined for the first seven games, but he returned to play the rest of Washington’s schedule. In 2024, Mathis finished the season with the New York Jets.

No. 48 picks: Dwight Stephenson, center, Miami Dolphins, 1980; Siran Stacy, running back, Philadelphia Eagles, 1992.

Stephenson didn’t become a full-time starter until his third season, and six years later, he suffered a career-ending injury. In between, he was a Pro Bowler five times and a first-team All-Pro four times. He joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998 and was selected for the NFL All-Time Team during the league’s centennial celebration.

Stacy spent one season with the Philadelphia Eagles without carrying the football. But he had 2,350 yards for the Scottish Claymores of the World League of American Football from 1995 through 1997.

No. 49 picks: Jarran Reed, defensive tackle, Seattle Seahawks, 2016; Ryan Anderson, outside linebacker, Washington Redskins, 2017.

Reed is preparing to play for his 10th NFL season and eighth with the Seahawks, a run interrupted by one season with the Kansas City Chiefs and one with the Green Bay Packers. Reed got 10.5 of his 38.5 sacks in the 2018.

In a five-season career, Anderson got four of the six sacks in a three-game span in 2019.

No. 50 picks: Javier Arenas, defensive back, Kansas City Chiefs, 2010; Irv Smith Jr., tight end, Minnesota Vikings, 2019.

In five seasons, Arenas intercepted two passes and returned 106 punts and 74 kickoffs.

Injuries have affected Smith’s career, including causing him to miss the 2021 season. He has 109 receptions for 973 yards and 10 touchdowns in 54 regular-season games.

No. 51 picks: Trevon Diggs, cornerback, Dallas Cowboys, 2020.

In his second NFL season, Diggs earned All-Pro recognition with the highest interception total in 40 years. Diggs led the NFL in 2021 with 11 interceptions, 142 interception-return yards and two interception-return touchdowns. After another Pro Bowl season in 2022, injuries limited Diggs to 13 games in the past two seasons.

No. 52 pick: Ken Stabler, quarterback, Oakland Raiders, 1968.

Stabler played for the Spokane Shockers of the Continental Football League before he ever took a snap for the Raiders. But when he replaced Daryle Lamonica as Oakland’s quarterback, “Snake” was on the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, although it took until 2016 for the former Foley High School star to be enshrined. Stabler was the NFL MVP in 1974 and, two seasons later, led Oakland to the NFL championship with a victory in Super Bowl XI.

No. 53 picks: Leroy Monsky, guard, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1938; Mike Washington, cornerback, Baltimore Colts, 1975.

Both the No. 53 picks were natives of Montgomery, with Monsky prepping at Sidney Lanier and Washington at Lee. Monsky was an All-American at Alabama, but he didn’t continue his football career in the NFL. Washington played 100 NFL regular-season games, all with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and intercepted 28 passes before a head injury in the first game of the 1984 season ended his career. Among Alabama alumni, only Lee Roy Jordan with 32 and Don Hutson with 30 have more NFL interceptions than Washington.

No. 54 picks: George Mason, tackle, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1955; Wayne Wheeler, wide receiver, Chicago Bears, 1974; Rod Rutledge, tight end, New England Patriots, 1998.

Wheeler caught five passes in the NFL, but one was a 19-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Bobby Douglass in the Bears’ 28-21 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Dec. 8, 1974.

Rutledge started 14 games and caught five passes for the first Super Bowl-winning team for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in New England.

No. 55 pick: Dalvin Tomlinson, defensive tackle, New York Giants, 2017.

After starting every game for four seasons in New York, Tomlinson signed a two-year, $21 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings in free agency in 2021. In 2023, he cashed in again in free agency with a four-year, $57 million contract from the Cleveland Browns. He has 125 starts in 125 NFL games.

No. 56 pick: Charley Hannah, guard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1977; Tony Dixon, defensive back, Dallas Cowboys, 2001; Raekwon Davis, defensive tackle, Miami Dolphins, 2020.

Hannah started his NFL career as a defensive lineman and ended it as an offensive lineman. In between, he played in 148 NFL regular-season games, with 126 starts. In 1983, Hannah was the left guard for the Oakland Raiders’ Super Bowl championship team.

Dixon’s only interception in four seasons came off Washington quarterback Patrick Ramsey in the Cowboys’ 20-14 loss on Dec. 29, 2002.

Davis earned a spot on the Professional Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team for the 2020 season.

No. 57 picks: Antwan Odom, defensive end, Tennessee Titans, 2004; Terrence Cody, defensive tackle, Baltimore Ravens, 2010; Chris Braswell, outside linebacker, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2024.

During his seven NFL seasons, Odom scored two touchdowns – both on fumble recoveries for the Titans in 2005. He had a 25-yard return in a 31-27 loss to the St. Louis Rams on Sept. 25 and a 27-yard return in a 31-28 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 20. They were the only two fumble recoveries of Odom’s career.

A two-time consensus All-American for the Crimson Tide, Cody was part of the Baltimore team that capped the 2012 season with a victory in Super Bowl XLVII.

Braswell played in every game as a rookie.

No. 58 pick: Hal Newman, end, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1941.

Newman never made it to the NFL, although he did play football after Alabama. Drafted (by the military this time) after agreeing to a $165-per-game contract with Brooklyn, Newman was the co-captain of the Randolph Field Ramblers, who won the 1944 national service team championship and finished third in the 1944 AP Poll behind Army and Ohio State.

No. 60 picks: Jeremy Nunley, defensive end, Houston Oilers, 1994; Cyrus Jones, defensive back, New England Patriots, 2016.

Nunley’s career consisted of 12 games with the Oilers in 1994.

Jones’ career came to a premature end after three seasons when he had open-heart surgery to repair an anomalous coronary artery.

No. 61 picks: Benny Nelson, defensive back, Detroit Lions, 1964; Tony Nathan, running back, Miami Dolphins, 1979; Eddie Lacy, running back, Green Bay Packers, 2013.

Nelson did not play for Detroit but joined the AFL’s Houston Oilers. In his only season, Nelson intercepted one pass, which he returned 45 yards for a touchdown in a 42-28 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 19, 1964. The interception came off Tom Flores, who threw four picks in the game.

Nathan and Lacy were all-stars as rookies. Nathan was the All-Pro return specialist in 1979, when he led the NFL in punt-return average. Lacy earned a Pro Bowl invitation in 2013 when he ran for 1,178 yards and 11 touchdowns.

No. 62 picks: Johnny Musso, running back, Chicago Bears, 1972; Antonio London, linebacker, Detroit Lions, 1993.

Musso held Alabama’s career rushing record for 14 years after his final game for the Crimson Tide. But he reached Chicago only after playing in two other leagues. Coming out of Alabama, Musso took a higher contract offer from the British Columbia Lions. He played in the CFL for three seasons and was a 1,000-yard rusher and all-star in 1973. In 1974, Musso played for the WFL’s Birmingham Americans. He joined the Bears in 1975, the same year that Walter Payton arrived in Chicago. In three seasons, Musso ran for 365 yards and six touchdowns on 100 carries before an ankle injury ended his career.

London played in 76 regular-season and four playoff games in six seasons – all but one with the Detroit Lions.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.