It's Official, Alabama has Most NFL Players for 6th Straight Season

The NFL released its annual roster breakdown after Kickoff Weekend and the Crimson Tide still tops all colleges.

Christopher Walsh | Sep 15, 2022

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Alabama Crimson Tide

When Nick Saban arrived at Alabama, the Crimson Tide had so few players in the National Football League that it didn't make the top 25 list for a few years.

On Thursday, the league released its annual roster breakdown for Kickoff Weekend, and for the sixth straight season Alabama led all colleges.

Specifically, the Crimson Tide had 58 active players.

It's four more than what Alabama had last year, and the most the program has ever had.

The Crimson Tide had 54 players in 2021, one more than the 53 in 2020. It also had 44 in 2018, and in 2017 tied for the most with 39.

LSU (52) and Ohio State (52) ranked tied for second in 2022, followed by Georgia (44).

Alabama's numbers were up despite the 2022 draft class struggling to get on the field so far. Outside of first-round selection Evan Neal, who is starting at right tackle for the New York Giants, cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis is the only other active player this week as the backup to Marlon Humphrey with the Ravens.

Wide receiver Jameson Williams (Lions) is coming off knee surgery and hopes to play later this season. So does Texans linebacker Christian Harris, who is dealing with a hamstring issue

His Houston teammate, wide receiver John Metchie III, is out for the season after being diagnosed with a form of leukemia.

Running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot twice after apparently winning the starting job at Washington.

Commander defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis Commanders was active last week, but suffered a season-ending knee injury.

A total of 224 colleges were represented on Kickoff Weekend active rosters. The 20 colleges with the most NFL players:

Alabama 58
LSU 52
Ohio State 52
Georgia 44
Notre Dame 37
Florida 33
Michigan 33
Oklahoma 32
Iowa 31
Clemson 29
Texas 26
Washington 26
Wisconsin 26
Auburn 24
Miami 24
UCLA 24
South Carolina 23
Stanford 23
Tennessee 23
Texas A&M

Kickoff Weekend is the only time of the year the league does a snapshot of its players because otherwise rosters are fluid and always changing. The 53-man active-player designation is important because it doesn't include practice squads, players on injury lists, or in the case of Calvin Ridley suspended.

Those groups include another dozen former Alabama players, many of whom could play this season.

As for the position breakdown, Alabama had the most offensive tackles (5), running backs (6), defensive tackles (10), and defensive backs (14).

It would have been tied for the most quarterbacks, but the league goes by the last school a player attended. So even though Jalen Hurts earned his degree at Alabama, he counted toward Oklahoma.

The Sooners were tied with three along with Missouri and North Dakota State.

Dear NFLU,

We got something for you! 😉#BuiltByBama pic.twitter.com/se6epJBGO7
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) September 15, 2022

Also of note, there were 304 players weighing under 200 pounds, 288 players under six-feet tall and 337 players weighing over 300 pounds.

The Buffalo Bills had 15 players weighing less than 200 pounds, the most in that category. Arizona had the most players under six-feet tall with 14, while the New York Giants had the most players weighing over 300 pounds with 14.

The average player in in the league was 6.18 feet, 244.56 pounds, 26.08 years old, and had 4.2 years of experience. The average roster had 9.63 rookie and first-year players, and 8.13 players 30 and older.

Bama in the NFL Database

Published Sep 15, 2022

CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of BamaCentral, which first published in 2018. He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004, and is the author of 26 books including Decade of Dominance, 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Nick Saban vs. College Football, and Bama Dynasty: The Crimson Tide's Road to College Football Immortality. He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.