Maybe I'm looking at this from a slightly biased perspective, but isn't that a remarkably small fraction of the squad to come out of the academy? Sorry for veering a bit off topic, but that figure was fairly striking for me.
Believe he was talking about recent academy graduates only (i.e. still a little underpaid) not all academy graduates. Now, I'm a bit too lazy to go through all the numbers, but having somewhere between 8 and 12 recent academy graduates in the first team squad seems par for England. Leicester are badly down with about 4, give or take, while Exeter have about 8 I'm sure of and another 6 or so that look like it but I'm not sure. Quins and Glaws both have 11 (depending on how recent Savage was). So Sarries' 8 is perfectly respectable by English standards. The fact there doesn't appear to be any senior academy graduates there is a little poor, but then, that's not unusual over here. Take Glaws - I'd list them as 14 academy graduates total. I'm not sure why, but clubs just don't seem to be holding onto their talent here. Quins is the notable exception out of those I could be bothered to count properly with a whopping 20 members of their 34 man squad being Quins academy graduates. That's without counting Tom Casson, which I probably should.
HOWEVER - if Saracens' number of recent academy graduates is not particularly unusual, it is no longer such a reason for having such a big squad - 42 at my count, although I was using wikipedia so might be out; Exeter and Wasps are the only clubs with bigger squads. Wasps already contains an injury dispensation signing and at least one guy on a season long loan, so their 43 is kinda really 41 - still incredibly high for the club at present. I think Exeter is 49, which is kinda bonkers, even if some of them are blatantly going to be off on loan/never playing.
By my count, Saracens' number of cheap recruits - academy, championship, erse end of abroad - is 17. That includes a couple of guys who maybe shouldn't be in there - Mako Vunipola counts as signed from Championship, but he was a first team and England U20 regular there, so just how cheap he was, can't be sure. Glaws with their squad of 37 also have 17 (18 if I count Savage as recent graduate). Again, there's a couple of guys who maybe shouldn't be there, but there we go. It evens out.
What Saracens are doing in terms of using the academy, signings from below and abroad, is what pretty much every English club is doing. When they have one of the biggest squads and one of the most talented squads simultaneously it alone does not explain how it all works. The fact that Saracens have a good atmosphere and a good record of getting points and medals for players helps. Players will take paycuts for that. The trips it takes the squad on arguably count as holiday - which does come under the cap.
Again, no hard facts. Not even soft facts. Just a little look at why everybody's so bloody suspicious of them.