TUSCALOOSA — Lyndell “Mack” Wilson watched as 154 names appeared on the TV screen before his.

For more than 40 hours this past weekend, the former Alabama inside linebacker agonized over each and every one of them, especially as more and more players at his position came off the NFL draft board.

There was a moment Thursday night, as the final pick of the opening round was announced, when Wilson huddled at the top of the stairs with friend and mentor Shaun Dion Hamilton, the ex-Alabama and G.W. Carver linebacker who stood in his spot a year ago before the Washington Redskins selected him in the sixth round.

“He just told me to remember this feeling,” said Wilson, whose difficult draft weekend slide was eventually halted in the middle of the fifth round when the Cleveland Browns picked him at No. 155 overall. “He was in my shoes last year — he slipped to the sixth and I was able to get drafted in the fifth — and he was like, ‘Remember this feeling.’ ... Thirty-one teams passed on me. So, somebody’s got to feel it. Somebody.”

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The next evening, on Day 2 of the draft — when most prognosticators had him getting picked in either the middle of the second or early third round at worst — Wilson spent the latter half of the night leaning back on the downstairs couch, his arms folded, staring blankly at the TV screen as more and more players were taken ahead of him. That included the Browns’ selection of BYU inside linebacker Sione Takitaki with the 80th pick in Round 3, which brought a momentary head shake from Wilson.

At end of the night, frustration clearly got the better of Wilson, who stormed upstairs into a spare room that housed a weight bench, and the distinct metal clang of a weight crashing on the floor could be heard throughout the borrowed Pike Road house.

“I thought I was the third inside linebacker, and for three to five guys to get drafted before me, now I’m sitting here like, ‘What’s going on?’ I’m asking my agents, ‘What is it?’” Wilson said Saturday.

And while even the best draft experts will admittedly tell you projecting how the NFL Draft will play out is a crap shoot, there weren’t many that thought Wilson would still be available beyond Day 2.

Least of all those in Wilson’s camp.

That said, there were some indications of something brewing in the days leading up to the draft, with an anonymous scout reportedly telling longtime Green Bay Packers beat writer Bob McGinn that Wilson erred in even entering the draft early, specifically citing some at Alabama that were upset by his decision to go against head coach Nick Saban’s recommendation to stay in school another year.

“He made a really bad decision coming out,” McGinn wrote in a column on the linebackers in the class published April 23. “… He never took the next step. Then he surprised Nick (Saban) and came out this year. He pissed a lot of people off in Tuscaloosa.”

Whether or not those “people” in Tuscaloosa had a tangible influence on Wilson’s plummeting draft stock is unclear, but what was obvious to Wilson’s representation was the lack of constructive support coming from the Mal Moore Athletic Complex once their client chose to leave school early.

“We understand that there was maybe a level of indifference that was placed on him from maybe Alabama as a result of him choosing to come out as a junior,” Wilson’s agent, Che Mock, said later Saturday, without elaborating. “We understand that there was some level of questions (about his) character, for whatever reason, because of the fact that there’s a perception that he likes to, you know, have a social (media) presence.

“But in the same respect, none of that, in the three years at being at the University of Alabama, ever was looked upon (negatively). And for whatever reason, as he went through the draft, it was. Whether that played into (his draft slide), I can’t imagine any other reason why he would have dropped.”

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At some point around 1 p.m. Saturday, multiple reports surfaced that concerns with Wilson’s “character/attitude” led to his tumble down draft boards, with both DallasCowboys.com writer and radio personality Bryan Broaddus and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler publicly addressing the issue.

Responding to a fan’s question at 1:15 p.m., Brugler tweeted he was aware of at least one team that had completely removed Wilson from its draft board due to his perceived “attitude issues.”

“That definitely surprised me because I don’t have no attitude issues with no coaches – you can ask my coaches at Bama,” Wilson said. “I don’t know where that even came from. You can ask any coach I ever played for, I’ve never had an attitude issue. Maybe when I was younger, but as of now, nah, that ain’t me.”

Earlier this spring, Saban went on a bit of a diatribe regarding players without first-round grades leaving school early for the NFL, indirectly citing former Alabama safety Ronnie Harrison — who was a third-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars last year — as an example of how a player can be hurt by entering the NFL early.

“Now, we have guys that have no draft grades, seventh-round grades, free-agent grades, fifth-round grades that are going out of the draft, and the person that loses in that is the player,” Saban said April 6. “If you’re a third-round draft pick, and we had one here last year (Harrison, who) goes and starts for his team, so he’s making third-round money, which is not that great. He’d be the first guy taken at his position this year, probably, and make $15-18 million more. … When people make emotional decisions, they’re going to have to suffer some really difficult consequences for themselves in the future because you don’t have to go out for the draft early.”

Saban’s comments aren’t completely altruistic, given that some unexpected early departures can adversely affect Alabama’s depth at certain positions — like at inside linebacker this spring — whereas their return to school would certainly benefit both Saban and the program next season.

Saban made sure to clarify he’d “do everything I can do to try to get (his players) drafted as high as they can get drafted, all right,” but also admitted “there’s a significant amount of players that are not making good business decisions about what they do, and yeah, it affects our team, (because) our team turns over more quickly.”

Ultimately, Wilson’s weekend of disappointment came to an acceptable end when first-year Cleveland head coach and former Alabama quarterback Freddie Kitchens called to inform Wilson he’d be the Browns’ fifth-round pick, but his nosedive was above all things costly.

As the 155th overall selection, Wilson is projected to receive a contract worth $2.827 million with a $307,622 signing bonus, according to spotrac.com’s draft salary index. That’s a net loss of as much as $4.2 million based on where some of the more reputable mock drafts projected Wilson being selected leading into last week.

A likely second-day pick according to most analysts, Wilson’s draft status had him projected anywhere between the 42nd overall pick in Round 2 (Brugler) and the 102nd overall selection in Round 3 (ProFootballFocus.com). ESPN.com’s Mel Kiper Jr. forecast dedWilson going to the Pittsburgh Steelers as the 66th overall selection at the top of the third round, a pick that will likely net new Steelers receiver Diontae Johnson of Toledo a $4.251 million deal.

Despite how things worked out this weekend, Wilson never once second-guessed his decision to leave Alabama with a season of eligibility remaining.

After all, whatever happens moving forward, he’ll still be earning a paycheck to play football, rather than doing it for free for another year at Alabama.

“Nah, not really. I’m happy with the decision that I made. Because you know, no matter what round I go, I still get a chance to play in the National Football League and make money … and still be able to help take care of my mom, things like that,” Wilson said. “(The slide) is just motivation. So I’m going to do whatever I can, work hard, to get to my second contract.

“They always say you’ll never make that first-round money back, but that’s a lie. You can. You just have to put that in your mind and put that in your heart to get up and go to work every day. And that’s what I’m going to do.”