ATHENS — Georgia’s 2024 NFL draft class will enable Kirby Smart to continue to sell results – not dreams – to recruits.
The Bulldogs had eight players selected in the draft, including first-round picks Brock Bowers and Amarius Mims.
Smart has more first-round picks (17) than losses (16) through his first eight years as Georgia’s head coach, a strong selling point on the all-important recruiting trail.
Team captain and 2023 SEC Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner Sedrick Van Pran-Granger was first off the board for the Bulldogs on Saturday, which featured round 4-7.
Van Pran-Granger, selected in the fifth round with the 141st overall pick, started 44 consecutive games at center for the Bulldogs.
“So thankful you came back this past season, (and) grateful for all your leadership during your time in Athens,” Smart wrote on his Twitter account. “You’re a special player and man, and I’m so excited to watch you play in Buffalo!”
Smart praised Van Pran-Granger’s leadership throughout his career, as the veteran center helped spearhead the most successful era in UGA football history.
“Most of (2024 players drafted) have been part of 46 of the last 48 games, (when) they’ve come out on top,” said Smart, noting a span dating back into the 2020 season within which Georgia won two national titles and an SEC-record 29 consecutive games.
“There’s a reason why we’ve won those games. You have good football players, and it equates to that. All those guys played a role in those games.”
Indeed, 20 of the 22 position players who started for UGA in the College Football Playoff Championship game win over Alabama in January 2022 have been drafted — including former UGA receivers Jermaine Burton and Adonai Mitchell, who finished their careers at Alabama and Texas, respectively.
The Falcons’ sixth-round pick Zion Logue, the eighth and final Georgia player selected in the this year’s draft, also was among the participants in the CFP title game win over Alabama.
Georgia has produced more NFL draft picks over the past four years (42) than any program in that span.
That run of talent includes 15 picks in the draft — a record in the draft’s modern era, which dates to 1994 when the league moved to seven rounds.
Georgia’s ability to consistently produce draft picks factors into Smart’s ability to recruit amid a new collegiate football landscape featuring NIL-inducements.
“It (NFL draft) is a great sell for the kids that’ll listen,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of them that want to ask about NIL. ... I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you make.”
Georgia had six of the first 100 players selected within the first three rounds of the draft Thursday and Friday.
Bowers and Mims were first off the board Thursday before Friday’s second- and third-round draft action saw four more Bulldogs selected by NFL teams.
• TE Brock Bowers (13th overall, Las Vegas)
• OT Amarius Mims (18th overall, Cincinnati)
• WR Ladd McConkey (34th overall, San Diego)
• CB Kamari Lassiter (42nd overall, Houston)
• SS Javon Bullard (58th overall, Green Bay)
• DB Tykee Smith (89th overall, Tampa Bay)
• C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger (141st overall, Buffalo)
• DT Zion Logue (197th overall, Atlanta)
Michigan led all programs with 13 players selected in the draft. Texas (11) had the second-most, followed by Washington, Florida State and Alabama, all of which had 10 draftees.
Jim Nagy, a former four-time Super Bowl-winning NFL scout who now serves as the executive director of the Senior Bowl, explained how Smart has built a standard for making Georgia players NFL-ready.
“They are so bought in, it’s so competitive (there),” Nagy said in January. “The NFL knows what they are getting from those guys.”
