Alabama won the CFP national championship for the 2020 college football season. In the 2021 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles used their first two selections on Crimson Tide players.

Georgia won the CFP national championship for the 2021 season. In the 2022 NFL Draft, the Eagles chose two Bulldogs in the first three rounds.

Georgia won the CFP national championship again for the 2022 season. In the 2023 NFL Draft, Philadelphia picked three players from the title team in the first four rounds.

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The picks marked a change for the Eagles.

Before choosing Crimson Tide wide receiver DeVonta Smith with the 10th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Philadelphia hadn’t chosen a player from Alabama since wide receiver Freddie Milons in 2002. When the Eagles selected Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis at No. 15 in the 2022 NFL Draft, he became the first pick from the Bulldogs since cornerback Brandon Boykin in 2012.

Although he’s been in his position since 2010, Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman said the best-players-from-the-best-teams plan became an appealing strategy during the coronavirus pandemic, when the contact between NFL teams and prospects was limited.

“I think it really started in 2021,” Roseman said on Saturday. “Obviously, 2020 was a weird process for us — not making excuses – but we weren’t all together. You didn’t get to know the people as much as you normally do because of COVID. I’m not crying for us. Obviously, a lot of people were affected by COVID. I think in 2021, we knew that we had to make sure our process was really tight as coach (Nick Sirianni) came on board, and we started with two Alabama guys.

“The way those guys work, the kind of players they are certainly, the kind of people they are, it just reminded us that, no different than when you’re trying to hire someone for a position, obviously, you want guys to be really talented at what they do in whatever role they’re in, but the other stuff matters as well. And the competition level matters, too. And so you see those guys play in the biggest games on the biggest stage against the best competition.

“It’s hard enough when you have all the factors going into a draft pick. We talk about it a lot. You got guys coming from a college town to the NFL, they don’t have classes, they’re on their own – all the things we’ve talked about before. But it takes the part out of the big jump in competition because the guys they’re playing against are the guys that are playing on Sunday.”

Alabama and Georgia tied for the most players produced in the 2023 NFL Draft with 10 apiece. Two teams selected players from the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs – the Eagles and Las Vegas Raiders.

After selecting Smith in the first round and center Landon Donovan in the second from Alabama in 2021, Philadelphia went back to the Tide in the third round on Friday for offensive tackle Tyler Steen.

After choosing Davis in the first round and linebacker Nakobe Dean in the third in 2022, the Eagles kept the pipeline from Athens flowing in 2023 with defensive tackle Jalen Carter and outside linebacker Nolan Smith in the first round and cornerback Kelee Ringo in the fourth.

“I know the jokes about Georgia, they’re coming, and maybe they have been there,” Roseman said. “But for us, it’s about the individual players. If we were going to bypass a player just because we had taken another player from that school, that would be silly, too. For us, where we took the players was based on their grade and, obviously, a great tribute to coach (Kirby) Smart and his staff about the kind of players and people they develop.”

Philadelphia became the first team to draft five defensive players from the same college program in a two-year span.

“I went to Georgia last year at practice,” Roseman said on Friday, “and came back and coach was like, ‘Who’d you like there?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, like, the whole defense.’ It’s just kind of amazing to think of all these guys that we got. These two guys (Carter and Nolan Smith) came in today, and I know you guys had chance to sit down with them, and they’re lobbying for three more guys.

“What is it? The EPL? European soccer league? The Premier League — they relegate teams. I was worried they were going to relegate us to the SEC if we took more Georgia guys.”

DeVonta Smith had 159 receptions for 2,112 yards and 12 touchdowns in the past two seasons, and Dickerson has become a Pro Bowl guard for Philadelphia, but Roseman’s biggest addition from Alabama didn’t come from Alabama.

In the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Roseman picked quarterback Jalen Hurts from Oklahoma, where he’d transferred after three seasons with the Tide. Eagles fans reacted with derision because Philadelphia had a four-year starter at quarterback already signed to a huge contract extension.

But as the Eagles crashed to a 4-11-1 showing in 2020, Hurts replaced Carson Wentz in the lineup for the final four games of the season. In 2022, Hurts led Philadelphia to the best record in franchise history and a spot in Super Bowl LVII while finishing as the runner-up for the NFL MVP Award.

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Counting Hurts, Philadelphia has three offensive starters from Alabama while the draft picks from Georgia have all been defensive players.

“Alabama has a tremendous defensive tradition, and, obviously, Georgia scores a ton of points,” Roseman said. “Their offensive coordinator became the offensive coordinator at Baltimore, so I don’t think we can put those – those programs are just good programs. They’re good teams. Just like we’re trying to build a balanced team. We want to have a really good offense; we want to have a really good defense. I think both those schools have shown that.”

Philadelphia has one defensive player from Alabama – cornerback Josh Jobe — but he wasn’t drafted by the Eagles. He came aboard as an undrafted rookie last season.

Sirianni quipped, “We should move Jobe to wideout,” to keep the Alabama offense/Georgia defense division, but Roseman muddied that more on Saturday when he traded for former Georgia running back D’Andre Swift.

Swift was available from Detroit after the Lions used a first-round pick on Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs on Thursday.

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