Nick Saban on the NFL Draft: Thoughts on the ex-Alabama coach's move into TV (2024)

Nick Saban earned his salary on Thursday night. His on-air day started at 5 p.m. ET for the NFL Draft edition of “College GameDay” that aired live on ESPN. It ended after midnight following a four-hour shift for ABC’s coverage of the NFL Draft and a “SportsCenter” hit with Scott Van Pelt. The former Alabama coach turned television presenter was on the air for more than six hours outside of a short break in the 7 p.m. ET hour. That was on top of a 90-minute rehearsal the day before.

Saban is no ordinary hire for The Worldwide Leader In Employing Former Coaches And Players. He is a white whale that ESPN chased for more than a decade. The two entities had endlessly flirted with each other prior to his formal hire two months ago, and ESPN executives never hid their lust to bring Saban into their orbit. There was one high-ranking ESPN official who told me years ago that Saban was the singular person they most wanted as an on-air talent. That was echoed often by others in management.

Judging how Saban will be as a broadcaster long-term based on one night of work is absurd, even in an era where people are paid a lot of money to be television-ready immediately. He’s signed for multiple years at ESPN, so consider this some opening thoughts on the Saban era at ESPN.

1. He was very comfortable on set

Where someone sits on a multi-person set has meaning, and ESPN’s producers placed Saban in the center chair on its five-person ESPN set. The ABC coverage placed Saban center-right of the set, next to host Rece Davis and analyst Kirk Herbstreit. That made Saban the focus of both productions, and he came off super-prepared on all the first-round selections.

When Washington picked LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels at No. 2, Saban said on defending him, “If you rush four guys and have a spy it means that you really can’t play zone. So now you have to play man-to-man, and if your cats ain’t better than their cats, you’ve got a problem playing man-to-man. He creates a lot of problems. It’s Randall Cunningham-type speed, and people are going to have to defend him … just like the guy from Baltimore (Lamar Jackson).”

When the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Washington guard Troy Fautanu, Saban’s analysis of the No. 20 pick was a clinic on educating fans.

“This guy was one of the three best offensive linemen in the draft,” he said. “Now, you may not pick him as your left tackle. So he could play guard but he could play left tackle. He has diversity as a player. This guy can bend, he can block low to high, he’s got power, he’s athletic, he can run. Those kind of guys in this day and age with all the screens and stuff are really, really important. And the ability to recover, that’s fantastic. People view him as a little bit not long enough to play tackle, but he has long arms. So I think he could probably play tackle it if he has to. But this guy is going to be a Pro Bowl guard. I’ll bet on it.”

That’s what viewers will want out of Saban — authoritative and credible analysis.

"Kind of guy you lay and look at the ceiling at night wondering how you're going to defend him."

Nick Saban on Jayden Daniels 😅 pic.twitter.com/r9d08ccQwq

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) April 26, 2024

2. His ESPN colleagues genuflected to the point of annoyance

Look, we know he’s Nick Saban. We know he’s arguably the greatest college coach of all time. But what Warner Bros. Discovery Sports learned very quickly during Wayne Gretzky’s tenure as an NHL analyst was that it’s very bad television to pay too much homage to an analyst. (Find yourself a life partner who loves you as much as football guys love each other’s on-air jokes, because Saban mentioning that he was on the tee box in Florida produced the same kind of response one might have watching a Chris Rock HBO session.) His ESPN colleagues would be wise to call him Nick and not “Coach” because it will help normalize him with viewers. The ABC group with Saban was infinitely better because Saban was just another expert voice on the set and not The Nick Saban.

3. His performance bodes well for “College GameDay” this fall

Where ESPN is hoping Saban will be a difference-maker is on the set of “College GameDay.” The show has morphed over the past two years with Pat McAfee becoming the show’s energy center and a significant cast change when David Pollack was part of company layoffs. (There have been other cast changes as well, including Chris Fallica and Tom Rinaldi leaving for Fox.) What “College GameDay” has lacked is someone right off the field, whether that’s a player or coach.

That’s where Saban can be significant. His knowledge of the current group of college players and coaches will be strong for the next couple of years. Again: The challenge for “GameDay” will be for the rest of the cast not to show deference to Saban and his opinion for every discussion. It has to be a show of equals. Saban should be challenged if other cast members disagree with something he said.

Nick Saban joins #CollegeGameDay 👏 🎉 pic.twitter.com/Lxg7N0uqO3

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) April 25, 2024

4. Will Saban have animpact on the 2024 NFL Draft viewership?

Not at all. Short of putting Taylor Swift on the set, no on-air person is going to change the 2024 NFL Draft viewership. But the expectation among those who study viewership is that this year’s NFL Draft will be among the most-watched in history, especially for the opening round. There were six quarterbacks selected in the first 12 picks, and skill players were taken throughout Thursday’s event. (There were 23 offensive players selected.) Last year’s opening round of the NFL Draft averaged a combined 11.29 million viewers across ESPN (5.62 million), ABC (4.11 million) and NFL Network (1.56 million), up 13 percent from the previos year (10.03 million). Per Sports Media Watch: The combined audience was the third-highest on record for night one of the draft, trailing 2020 (15.26 million) which was unique because of COVID and the absence of live sports, and 2021 (12.52 million).

5. Can Saban be critical of coaches?

That we don’t know. The ABC NFL Draft broadcast is intentionally designed to focus on the behind-the-scenes of the players and is more celebratory. We rarely heard why a player might not fit. (Bill Belichick, on “The Pat McAfee Annual Draft Spectacular,” was phenomenal on this and fantastic in general when I listened in.)

College football coaches rarely get criticized from media rights-holder broadcasters, generally receiving the kind of acclaim reserved for Hollywood royalty. We’ll see how Saban is on “GameDay” when the situation warrants it.

NFL Draft 2024 tracker:Live blog, pick-by-pick grades and analysis
Big board best available:Who’s left from Dane Brugler’s Top 300?
Draft pick grades:Nick Baumgardner, Scott Dochterman rate the selections
Full draft order:Team picks for all 257 selections
“The Athletic Football Show”:Watch live reaction to the draft

(Photo of Nick Saban at the WM Phoenix Open in February: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)