Thirty-four of the 72 former Alabama players who appeared during the NFL’s 2023 regular season are on the 14 playoff teams. All were coached by Nick Saban while with the Crimson Tide.

One of them said on Thursday he wouldn’t be in that spot if it wasn’t for his time at Alabama with Saban.

Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa gathered with former Alabama and current NFL teammates Lester Cotton and Raekwon Davis in the Dolphins’ locker room to talk about Saban’s Wednesday retirement after 17 seasons as the Crimson Tide’s coach.

“I don’t think nobody believed it when it came out, so we was all shocked,” Davis said.

The players allowed Tagovailoa to field the questions from the mob of reporters gathered around them.

“Very, very, very, very grateful to have been able play under Nick Saban,” Tagovailoa said. “Obviously, I don’t know how he was able to find someone like me all the way in Hawaii being all the way out there in Alabama. For me to have gotten that opportunity, I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t had that opportunity. Obviously, we know how that journey went. There’s a lot of things that he’s helped me with, and I’m very grateful, on and off the field.

“He will be missed. I know a lot of people are feeling him retiring and whatnot. But until next year, we’ll have to see what that looks like and ‘Roll, Tide.’”

While Tagovailoa came to Alabama from St. Louis School in Honolulu, Cotton was a homegrown Crimson Tide product from Central High School in Tuscaloosa. Davis came from Meridian High School in Mississippi. The three were Crimson Tide teammates in 2017 and 2018.

“There’s many lessons with coach Saban,” Tagovailoa said. “He has really good perspective on coach-to-player relationships. Really, he just has a knack for trying to allow players or putting players in the best position that they could be to be successful to go out there and, hopefully, build a resume strong enough that they could have a good future.”

The Dolphins are preparing to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the AFC playoffs. They’ll square off at 7 p.m. CST Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

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