After both his first season as head coach at Fresno State and at Washington, Kalen DeBoer had as many players picked in the next NFL Draft as Nick Saban did after his first season as the head coach at Alabama.

None.

Nobody’s expecting DeBoer’s first season at Alabama to conclude with no Crimson Tide players getting picked in the 2025 NFL Draft. DeBoer is succeeding Saban after Alabama’s six-time national-championship coach stepped down on Wednesday.

After Saban’s empty draft, 123 Alabama players were picked in the past 15 years, with more on deck from the 2023 team for April 25-27, when the 89th NFL Draft will be held in Detroit.

That draft bonanza, along with 28 of his Alabama pupils who have reached the NFL as undrafted free agents, has given Saban an unprecedented presence in the pros. With 72 Alabama alumni appearing in NFL regular-season games in 2023, the Crimson Tide broke the record for the most players from one college program in one NFL season for the third year in a row.

RELATED: NICK SABAN’S LEGACY ALIVE AND WELL IN THE NFL

This will be new for DeBoer.

DeBoer has had four players go directly from his tutelage to the NFL Draft:

· Eastern Michigan running back Darius Jackson, who was selected in the sixth round by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2016 NFL Draft. DeBoer was Eastern Michigan’s offensive coordinator from 2014 through 2016.

· Fresno State wide receiver KeeSean Johnson, who was selected in the sixth round by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft. DeBoer was Fresno State’s offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018.

· Indiana tackle Simon Stepaniak, who was selected in the sixth round by the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFL Draft. DeBoer was Indiana’s offensive coordinator in 2019.

· Fresno State cornerback DaRon Bland, who was selected in the fifth round by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2022 NFL Draft. DeBoer was Fresno State’s head coach in 2020 and 2021.

Fresno State quarterback Jake Haener threw for 4,096 yards and 33 touchdowns with DeBoer at the helm in the second season with the Bulldogs for both the QB and the coach in 2021. But DeBoer was a year gone from Fresno State when the New Orleans Saints selected Haener in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

From his final team at Washington, DeBoer is expected to have at least eight players drafted, with wide receiver Rome Odunze, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and edge rusher Bralen Trice considered to have first-round potential.

DeBoer has had five other players make it into NFL regular-season play in the season after they worked with him without the benefit of getting drafted. The most successful of those has been Tennessee Titans wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, who was at Indiana in 2019 and just concluded his fourth NFL season.

DeBoer is inheriting an NFL pipeline at Alabama. But is it Saban’s or Alabama’s pipeline?

In the 16 NFL drafts before Saban, Alabama produced 68 picks, with eight going in the first round. Forty-four of Saban’s Crimson Tide players have been first-round picks so far.

Does producing draft picks really matter?

The Saban team that didn’t produce any is the only one of his Alabama teams that didn’t win at least 10 games and the only one that lost two regular-season non-conference games. For the rest of Saban’s tenure, the Crimson Tide lost one regular-season non-conference game.

During Saban’s 17 seasons, Alabama won 206 games, more than any other program. The Crimson Tide also has had the most players drafted over that time.

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