Former Alabama linebacker Drew Sanders is a free agent after the Denver Broncos waived him from injured reserve on Tuesday, ending a four-year stay that never matched the promise he showed in Tuscaloosa.
The move was revealed via ESPN’s NFL transaction log.
Sanders, a 6-foot-5, 233-pound defender from Denton, Texas, arrived at Alabama as a five-star recruit in 2020 and was part of Nick Saban’s last national title team.
That Crimson Tide squad went 13-0, routed Ohio State 52-24 in the College Football Playoff championship, and gave Sanders a ring as a true freshman. He played mostly special teams that season and recorded nine tackles, then started in 2021 after an injury to Christopher Allen and finished with 24 tackles and a sack before entering the transfer portal.
The portal took him to Arkansas, where he exploded in 2022 with 103 tackles and 9.5 sacks and earned first-team All-America honors.
Denver still selected him in the third round (No. 67 overall) of the 2023 NFL Draft. For Alabama fans who remember the 2020 championship locker room, the pick felt like another Tide product getting a real NFL chance.
That chance never fully materialized. Sanders played all 17 games as a rookie, starting four and posting 24 tackles and a fumble recovery. After that, injuries piled up. He tore his Achilles in the 2024 offseason and appeared in only four games that year. A foot tendon injury cost him the entire 2025 season.
This summer, he was again limited, and Denver waived him with an injury designation when it set the 53-man roster. After he cleared waivers and reverted to IR, the Broncos cut him from injured reserve on Sept. 8 with an injury settlement.
His final Broncos totals: 21 games, 32 tackles, one sack. Head coach Sean Payton said the decision was hard because of Sanders’ work ethic.
From an Alabama perspective, Sanders is another reminder of how thin the line is between a championship résumé and an NFL career that never quite sticks. He left Tuscaloosa after two seasons, but the 2020 title remains the brightest line on his football bio.
At 25, he can still sign with another team once healthy. For Crimson Tide fans, the story is familiar: a player who helped deliver a national championship, then spent the next chapter fighting his body more than opposing offenses.
Whether Sanders lands elsewhere this season, the ring from January 2021 is already secured. That part of the Alabama story does not get waived.
