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Say what you want about Colin Cowherd and his opinions about the SEC, but he definitely doesn’t have an anti-Alabama agenda.
The Fox Sports radio show host revealed his first mock draft (it was only 10 players), which consisted of multiple former Alabama players. Cowherd had Minkah Fitzpatrick off the board at No. 4 to the Browns and he slotted Calvin Ridley following that pick at No. 5 to the Broncos.
Why so high on the former Tide All-Americans? Cowherd offered up some serious praise for Fitzpatrick on “The Herd.”
“You’re going to take maybe the safest player in the draft…(Fitzpatrick) is all-world. This kid’s for real. He has no bust potential,” Cowherd said. “He really is a special player. He’ll be your defensive captain within a year.”
As for Ridley, Cowherd liked the idea of the former Alabama wideout providing an immediate need to surround free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins with a playmaker on the outside.
Those weren’t Cowherd’s only SEC surprises. He also had former Texas A&M star Christian Kirk coming off the board at No. 8 to the Bears. Cowherd called Kirk “the closest thing to (former Florida star) Percy Harvin that the NFL has seen.”
Cowherd has publicly been adamant that receivers are “like icing,” so it says a lot that he has 2 SEC wideouts in his top 8.
If Cowherd’s prediction of 2 Alabama players in the top 5 comes true, it’ll mark the first time that happened since 1948.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
