Veteran coach Todd Grantham, who was one of the top candidates for Alabama's defensive coordinator job and interviewed with Nick Saban, has instead decided to return to the NFL as a defensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Grantham, who previously coached in the NFL for 11 seasons, spent the 2022 season as an off-field analyst at Alabama. Saban has had success bringing in established coaches who've either been fired or are out of work, making them an analyst for a year or two and then elevating them to a coordinator's role.
Grantham has been a coordinator at three different schools in the SEC and worked under Saban at Michigan State.