During the time that John Harbaugh has been Baltimore’s coach, the Ravens have drafted eight Alabama players, tied with the New England Patriots and Washington Commanders for the most picks from the Crimson Tide over the previous 16 NFL drafts.

“I think you get a bunch of guys that know how to practice,” Harbaugh said. “They know how to compete in practice every single day. I have to think at Alabama, practice is probably tougher than most of the games. Every single day, you’re fighting for your position.

“At our level, that’s good. It’s good to have guys that know how to work hard and football’s important to them.”

MORE NFL:

· JAGUARS RELEASE FORMER ALABAMA ALL-AMERICAN

· WHO’S THE BEST NFL DEFENSIVE BACK FROM ALABAMA?

· ALABAMA ROOKIES START, STOP WORK WITH LIONS

Baltimore had an inside track on building its reputation as a connoisseur of Alabama football players. The executive who ran most of those drafts for the Ravens was Ozzie Newsome, a College Football Hall of Fame player for Alabama who went on to become a Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end for the Cleveland Browns.

“Ozzie’ll take a lot of credit for it, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “Heck, yeah, it’s Ozzie. But we’ve always had great success with those guys. Maybe it’s because Ozzie knows those guys so well. I think (Alabama coach) Nick (Saban) and Ozzie are very close. They talk a lot. I think Ozzie’s kind of an advisor and confidante for Nick, and the same thing the other way.

“But we always feel like we know those guys really well, and we’ve never been steered in the wrong way. Alabama guys, they like to work, they like to compete. Marlon Humphrey’s one of the best ever, but he’s not the only one. We’ve had so many great players from there. I love those guys.”

Alabama is one of five programs that have appeared at least twice in the past four College Football Playoffs, along with Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State. The Ravens have 13 players from those programs on their roster.

“It seems like the best teams have the best players,” Harbaugh said. “It kind of goes that way. …

“We like guys that like football. We don’t really care where they came from so much as if they came from a place that values football and guys who like football, and those are the kind of schools that do that.”

Baltimore’s most recent draft pick from Alabama is Jalyn Armour-Davis, a former St. Paul’s Episcopal star who joined Baltimore in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Like Humphrey, Armour-Davis is a cornerback for the Ravens.

Armour-Davis played in four games before an injury sent him to the sidelines for the rest of his rookie season.

“Jalyn Armour-Davis had kind of a little hip injury,” Harbaugh said. “I think he had it coming in a little bit. Kind of the remnants of the college career. Fought through it as long as he could. Really did a great job, although he’ll tell you that it affected him, so I can’t wait to see him out there. He’s doing rehab right now, so he’ll be ready to go.”

Harbaugh was in Armour-Davis’ hometown on Tuesday night, when he served as the featured speaker at Team Focus’ annual fund-raiser at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.

Armour-Davis was an All-State selection for a state championship team in 2017, when the Saints captured the AHSAA Class 5A title.

The Ravens’ nose tackle also is a former Coastal Alabama prep star who was an All-State player for a state championship team. Michael Pierce led Daphne to the AHSAA Class 6A championship with an undefeated season in 2010.

Pierce broke into the NFL as an undrafted rookie with Baltimore in 2016. After four seasons with the Ravens, he left in free agency for the Minnesota Vikings. Pierce returned to the Ravens last season, but a torn biceps knocked him out for the season after three games.

“We had Michael from Samford,” Harbaugh said. “He was a free-agent pickup and was a star. He went away for a while and got his big contract. Now he’s back, and we’re happy to have him back home, and he’s going to be good for us this year. He’s working real hard.”

On Tuesday, the Cleveland Browns completed their trade with the Vikings to obtain pass-rusher Za’Darius Smith, another Alabama prep product who spent his first four NFL seasons with Baltimore. The past four seasons, the Greenville High School alumnus has been in the NFC North with the Green Bay Packers and Vikings. Now he’s back in the AFC North with one of the Ravens’ rivals.

“I’m not real happy about it,” Harbaugh said. “I’m not real happy about Za’Darius being with the Browns. Not at all. If you’re going to be in our division, you probably should be in Baltimore. But, you know, God has other plans sometimes.

“Za’Darius is the best. He’s a great guy. He’s a great player. It’s going to be a big challenge for us. Then you got a pretty good one on the other side in Myles Garrett, so the Browns, they got a lot of talented players.”

Team Focus was started by Mike and Mickey Gottfried in Mobile in 2001. The goal of Team Focus is to provide males 10 through 18 years old who do not have a father figure in their lives “with leadership skills, guidance, Godly values and a continual relationship with a mentor.”

“So many guys are successful because that had the opportunity to be mentored and led by a dad,” Harbaugh said. “That’s the one thing about Team Focus that hits close to home because I think Mike understands and all the people involved in Team Focus and all the donors that are here tonight understand the impact that a father has on a young man’s life. And these boys and young men that don’t have that, they’re going to look for it and find it somewhere.

“A lot of times, it’s a coach. A lot of times, it’s a teacher. But in Team Focus, it becomes the mentor program, it becomes the camps and things like that, the connections that they make. And so many success stories here, so many guys you meet. Just here tonight, these young men that come back and say, ‘That was the difference. That was the turning point for me in my life. That’s when I really began to understand what it meant and what it was going to take,’ and they’ve been successful because of it.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

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