The 2026 NFL Draft begins Thursday night in Pittsburgh, and Alabama football will look to extend its streak of at least one player taken in the first round of the draft to 18 consecutive seasons when the festivities get underway.Like five-star recruits, not all first-round picks pan out. Some "can't-miss" draft prospects are big misses, and some players who fall to the middle and even late rounds can turn out to have lengthy and productive playing careers. A few have even made the Pro Football Hall of Fame.It's the former that has USA TODAY Sports thinking about the biggest NFL draft busts of the past 50 years.
On Tuesday, NFL analyst Nate Davis compiled a list of 50-plus players dating back to 1976 that he considers worthy of the dreaded "bust" label.The list includes two former Alabama football national champions that played for the Crimson Tide under Nick Saban.Alabama football national championship QB named one of top 5 'NFL draft busts'Under Saban, Alabama saw all but a handful of starting quarterbacks taken at some point in an NFL Draft. That began with Greg McElroy going to the New York Jets as a seventh-round pick in 2011 and ended with Jalen Milroe going in the third round to the Seattle Seahawks last year.(Milroe spent his final season under Kalen DeBoer.Only John Parker Wilson, Blake Sims and Jake Coker went undrafted among Alabama quarterbacks to start a full season under Saban.Former Tide quarterback Mac Jones, who guided Alabama to Saban's sixth and final national championship in 2020, was named a top-five draft bust by Davis.
He joins a list that includes BYU's Zach Wilson, North Dakota State's Trey Lance, and Ohio State's Justin Fields that all tied for No. 4 among Davis' "biggest busts."Davis said of Jones, who was drafted 15th overall by the Patriots in 2021:"With the help of former New England OC Josh McDaniels, he looked like a legitimate NFL starter … for a year, anyway. Then it all fell apart for Jones, also largely undermined by an organization that didn’t give him sufficient positional coaching or playmakers. It got so bad in 2023, the decision was made to send Jones home in a trade with Jacksonville, where he backed up Trevor Lawrence in 2024.
Now, like Sam Darnold did, Jones is hoping to initiate something of a career reboot while apprenticing with Shanahan and the 49ers -- and the early returns were promising in 2025, but Jones is apparently still a year away from a second chance."Jones seems a bit too high on this list for me. Despite some well-documented turbulence in New England, he played in 11 games and had eight starts for the 49ers last season. Jones threw for 2,151 yards with 13 touchdowns to six interceptions.
Those aren't dreadful numbers.At Alabama, Jones threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns to four interceptions while guiding the Crimson Tide to a perfect 13-0 record and a national championship romp over Ohio State at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in January 2021. Alabama's 2020 team is arguably the best in the history of the four-team CFP.Joel Klatt has bold prediction for Alabama QB Ty Simpson at NFL Draft📸 Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images https://t.co/DnWmyONfLepic.twitter.com/Z0nTBRgTAL— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) April 20, 2026Former Alabama football captain named one of worst NFL draft picksAnother player from Alabama's loaded 2020 team that made USA TODAY Sports' list of biggest NFL draft busts at No. 40 is offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood.A three-year starter who was picked 17th overall by the Raiders in 2021, Leatherwood won the 2020 Outland Trophy and was part of an O-line that won the Joe Moore Award that same year.Things didn't work out after Leatherwood was drafted by one of the NFL's most dysfunctional franchises of the past 25 years.Davis said of Leatherwood being drafted by the Jon Gruden-Mike Mayock Raiders:"Mayock did get one more crack at the draft … and took the Alabama lineman much earlier than most observers had him projected.
Unable to handle right tackle in the NFL, Leatherwood moved to guard but was waived prior to the 2022 season -- by the regime that succeeded Mayock."Kalen DeBoer and Alabama agree to contract extension📸 Kirby Lee, Kirby Lee-Imagn Images https://t.co/PrQ08IevhNpic.twitter.com/qtpOW7VioI— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) April 22, 2026When is 2026 NFL Draft? Time, TV channel, scheduleRound 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft begins at 7 p.m. CT on Thursday from Pittsburgh.
Rounds 2-3 will be held starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, with rounds 4-7 on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.The NFL Draft will be televised on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.Follow us at @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook, for ongoing coverage of Alabama Crimson Tide news, notes and opinions. This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama football national champions named biggest NFL draft 'busts'