The 2024 NFL Draft starts on Thursday in Detroit with the 32 first-round picks. In the 88 NFL drafts, teams have chosen 128 prospects who played at Alabama high schools and colleges in the first round, and another 29 who were not first-rounders but were selected in the first 32 picks. AL.com is counting down to the draft by highlighting the players with Alabama football roots who have been chosen in the first 32 picks.

In the 1974 NFL Draft, the San Diego Chargers took Colorado fullback Bo Matthews with the second pick. Seven selections later, the San Francisco 49ers chose Alabama running back Wilbur Jackson.

The two ball-carriers were former Alabama prep stars – Matthews at Butler in Huntsville and Jackson at Carroll in Ozark. Both had been All-State selections in 1969. But they share a less apparent connection, too.

Jackson was the first Black player to sign a football scholarship with the Crimson Tide. If his grades had been a little better, it might have been Matthews, who had committed to Alabama.

Instead, Matthews wound up at Colorado, then as the surprise No. 2 pick in the 1974 NFL Draft. That’s the quickest a Colorado player has been picked in the draft.

Matthews played six of his eight NFL seasons with the Chargers. In 101 regular-season games, he ran for 1,566 yards and 11 touchdowns on 424 carries and caught 75 passes for 488 yards.

Four other prospects from Alabama high schools and colleges have been the No. 2 choice in an NFL draft:

· Back Riley Smith (Alabama): 1936 by the Boston Redskins. Smith was the second player picked in the first NFL Draft. Smith played quarterback (or blocking back in the nomenclature of the era) in the Redskins’ final season in Boston and two more years in Washington. Smith scored touchdowns rushing, receiving and on an interception return, threw TD passes and kicked extra points and field goals during his career.

· Linebacker Cornelius Bennett (Ensley, Alabama): 1987 by the Indianapolis Colts. Bennett had a delayed start to his rookie season – with the Buffalo Bills, not the Colts – after a contract dispute made him part of a three-team trade that brought future Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson to Indianapolis. Bennett made the Pro Bowl five times and played in 206 regular-season and 21 playoff games, including five Super Bowls, although his team lost in all those NFL championship games. One of the four Alabama players to appear in at least 200 NFL regular-season games, Bennett has the most starts for a Tide alumnus with 204.

· Running back Ronnie Brown (Auburn): 2005 by the Miami Dolphins. Brown had a 10-year NFL career that included a 1,000-yard rushing season in 2006, a Pro Bowl invitation in 2008 and a brief stint as a league trendsetter as a wildcat quarterback.

· Offensive tackle Greg Robinson (Auburn): 2014 by the St. Louis Rams. Robinson started 70 games for three teams in six NFL seasons. Robinson started 14 games in his final NFL season, but his free agency never led to another contract after he was arrested in a car with 157 pounds of marijuana.

The Washington Commanders hold the second selection in this year’s draft.

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