Alabama legend football coach Nick Saban said this kid might be the best player in the draft pound pound-for-pound.
Saban was referring to Mike Sainristil, a nickel corner out of Michigan, whom the Commanders selected with the 50th overall pick in April’s NFL draft.
Sainristil sat down with Bryan Colbert Jr. for another episode of “Raising Hail with the Rookies.”
“It’s a blessing to be here,” began Sainristil. “God works his ways, he put me in this building and I felt very blessed, very appreciative of this opportunity to be here.”
He talked of how his parents moved the family from Haiti, sacrificed, overcame struggles, and constantly worked when things didn’t go right sometimes, teaching him, “There’s nothing I’m going through that I can’t keep pushing through. One thing I learned young, in order to grow, you’ve got to go through something.”
Sainristil said he was raised in a strict home, but now, as he is older, he appreciates it and feels it has made him who he is.
Receiving a draft night call from the Commanders surprised the former Wolverine, saying he had never even talked to his agent about the possibility of being selected by the Commanders. When he was officially selected moments later, he said it was great how excited he was and everyone in the room with him.
He joked that if he could sit down with Saban, he would ask him, “Why couldn’t you say that about me before the draft?” This would have raised his stock to have been selected earlier…
“The one thing I know I am going to bring to this team is I am going to be a great teammate, respectable, able to be held accountable, and going to hold my teammates accountable. I’m going to be a leader.”
Having begun as a receiver at Michigan and then being asked by Jim Harbaugh to switch to defensive back, Sainristil believes that regarding “techniques and fundamentals, I am still far off from where I can be, and that is what excites me the most. Being in this opportunity with these coaches is the best opportunity possible.”