- Georgia‘s defensive talent is second-to-none: The Bulldogs have produced 13 defensive first-round picks since 2018, the most of any program.
- A down 2026 draft doesn't mean time to worry: Although no Georgia defender was selected until 42nd overall, the Bulldogs are loaded with prospects like Ellis Robinson IV for 2027.
- Get ready for draft day with PFF Fantasy: Build your rankings with the Fantasy Rankings Builder, practice with the Mock Draft Simulator, get real-time help from the Live Draft Assistant and dig into the Fantasy Draft Kit, Fantasy Rankings and PFF Premium Stats to make every pick with an edge.
Kirby Smart has built a powerhouse at Georgia, establishing the Bulldogs as one of college football’s premier NFL Draft talent factories en route to winning a pair of national championship titles.
Other blue-blood programs have developed reputations for specializing at particular positions, such as Ohio State’s phenomenal run of wide receiver exports in recent times. Georgia’s NFL output has centered firmly on the defensive side of the ball throughout Smart’s reign, particularly along the front seven.
Aside from the program’s national recruiting pipeline, which has sourced names such as Nolan Smith from Florida and Brock Bowers from California, the state of Georgia itself has grown into something of a recruiting hotbed over the last decade.
The trio of Texas, Florida and California once stood miles clear of the rest of the country when it came to high school football talent, but the Peach State has bridged the gap between those three and everybody else. The Metro Atlanta area, in particular, has become a haven for emerging football talent, the very best of which is hoovered up by the Athens-based university every year.
Many of those players grow up as Bulldogs fans with every intention of entering Smart’s football factory, a program that hasn’t faced the same struggles brought about by the NIL and transfer portal eras that some other top schools have suffered.
Georgia’s Defensive Pipeline to the NFL
Since Smart’s first recruiting classes started to filter through to the professional leagues around 2018, the Bulldogs have exported a record 13 defensive players in the first round of the NFL draft, enough to field an entire defense. An additional eight Day 2 selections round out what is almost two complete Bulldogs defenses selected inside the top 100 picks.
The 2026 NFL Draft represented one of the rare years of the Smart era in which no Georgia defender heard his name called in the first round, although Christen Miller came close at 42nd overall.
A stat like that typically bodes well for the Georgia defense entering the following season. Indeed, the Bulldogs return 72% of their defensive output from last season, the second-highest mark in the SEC.
What Makes Georgia’s Talent So NFL-Ready?
Aside from possessing some of the very best raw athletes available in every draft cycle, Georgia has earned the admiration and trust of NFL decision-makers for how pro-ready Smart’s defensive prospects tend to be.
Unlike some other top college defenses, Georgia brings a balanced game plan, meaning the vast majority of its players are considered relatively scheme-independent during the pre-draft process.
One example can be found in coverage usage, where Georgia’s split between man and zone closely mirrors the NFL average. Iowa and Notre Dame are consistently considered among the best defenses in college football. However, Iowa’s 80% zone coverage rate over the last five years is the second-highest in the Power Four and inevitably raises questions about whether its prospects are comfortable handling man-to-man assignments.
At the other end of the spectrum, Notre Dame’s 50% man coverage rate over the last five seasons is the second-highest in the Power Four, leading to its own concerns about prospects’ awareness and comfort in advanced NFL zone coverage systems.
While Georgia remains relatively balanced on the back end, its defensive front is consistently among the most aggressive in college football. Since 2020, the Bulldogs rank sixth in the Power Four in blitz rate and second in stunt rate.
From a pure size, speed and agility perspective, when a defense possesses athletes of this caliber, it makes perfect sense to send them rushing from all angles and force opposing offenses to keep their heads on a swivel.
Which Players Have Taken an Extra Leap in the Pros?
Not all of Georgia’s top defensive draft picks arrived in the NFL as finished products. In some cases, the athletic tools on hand have simply been too tantalizing for NFL decision-makers to look in another direction.
Take Travon Walker, for example. The Jaguars selected him with the first overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft despite Walker registering merely a 69.0 career PFF grade at Georgia.
That same year, the Packers drafted rotational piece Quay Walker in the first round. Meanwhile, both linebackers who started ahead of him at Georgia, Nakobe Dean and Channing Tindall, remained on the board through much of Day 2.
Just last season, the hometown Atlanta Falcons drafted Jalon Walker 15th overall to disrupt opposing quarterbacks as an edge rusher, a role Walker carried out on fewer than 300 snaps at Georgia — where he primarily lined up off the ball. It’s fair to suggest that the jury is still out on all three players, although the latter is certainly off to the strongest start.
Walkers aside, the rest of Georgia’s top defensive draft picks generally arrived in the league after legitimate production at the collegiate level. Compound that with the fact that virtually every premier Bulldogs defender tests exceptionally well at the NFL Combine, and these players tend to enter the league with very few question marks.
Georgia First-Round Picks’ Career PFF Grades
| Player | Career NFL PFF Grade | Career Georgia PFF Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Jalen Carter | 76.8 | 91.7 |
| Jordan Davis | 76.7 | 85.6 |
| Jalon Walker | 72.8 | 75.7 |
| Nolan Smith | 71.9 | 85.9 |
| Roquan Smith | 71.8 | 94.4 |
| Malaki Starks | 67.9 | 87.5 |
| Eric Stokes | 67.4 | 90.5 |
| Devonte Wyatt | 63.1 | 89.4 |
| Travon Walker | 63.0 | 69.0 |
| Mykel Williams | 54.6 | 81.9 |
| DeAndre Baker | 50.8 | 92.9 |
| Quay Walker | 50.2 | 69.5 |
| Lewis Cine | N/A | 87.5 |
Comparing college grades directly with NFL grades is an apples-to-oranges exercise, but it is difficult not to notice that none of Georgia’s many first-round defenders has developed into a truly elite player at the next level.
Jalen Carter may be the exception. He was drafted as a pure disruptor in the passing game and has become exactly that for the Philadelphia Eagles. With a 50.8 career PFF run-defense grade compared to an 89.8 pass-rushing grade, there is practically no greater disparity between performance against the pass and the run among defensive linemen currently in the league.
Safety Lewis Cine will go down as a major what-if for Minnesota Vikings fans. A brutal compound leg fracture during his rookie season effectively ended his NFL career before it ever really began. He logged just 10 career defensive snaps.
Not listed here are several quality Day 2 selections, including Texans cornerback Kamari Lassiter, Browns cornerback Tyson Campbell and Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean. Lassiter’s 82.1 overall PFF grade through two NFL seasons is the highest of any defender from the Smart era.
The 26-year-old Campbell, meanwhile, is set to play his 5,000th NFL snap this upcoming season as a member of the Cleveland Browns after spending the first portion of his career in Jacksonville.
Has Any Georgia Defender Slipped Through the Cracks?
Not necessarily. It’s quite difficult to find a sleeper pick at a school this prolific. As mentioned earlier, even relatively unproductive players at Georgia have been drafted in premium spots based largely on their athletic ability and perceived upside.
The NFL’s top defensive talent evaluators begin their search in Athens. If a player was deemed talented enough to walk through the doors at Georgia in the first place, he is worth taking a look at.
Only nine Georgia defenders who were either chosen on Day 3 or went undrafted have played more than 100 NFL snaps over the last five years.
Kelee Ringo and Derion Kendrick both started at cornerback for national championship-winning Georgia defenses. Each has been passable in fairly limited NFL action over the last few years, but neither has emerged as the kind of overlooked prospect who leaves the league wondering how he fell so far.
Who’s Up Next?
PFF’s 2027 NFL Draft Big Board currently lists Georgia cornerback Ellis Robinson IV as the No. 11 overall player in the class. Playing behind him is safety KJ Bolden, whom PFF ranks 16th overall. Linebacker Chris Cole is another name to keep an eye on as the 2026 season progresses.
A couple of years further down the line, defensive tackle Elijah Griffin looks set to become another premium product out of Athens. Griffin was the third-ranked player in the entire 2025 recruiting class, and the early returns from his freshman season were extremely promising.
Georgia’s defensive pipeline has reached the point where a quiet draft year is more likely to signal what is coming next than the end of the production line. With another collection of highly-regarded prospects developing in Athens, Smart’s program appears well-equipped to keep supplying NFL defenses for years to come.
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