Athens, Georgia — Raylen Wilson was at home in Tallahassee, Florida, watching the opening night of the 2022 NFL Draft. Wilson, a five-star recruit who was committed to Michigan at the time, watched as another recruiting program prevailed. Georgia had five defensive players selected in the first round, including the number one overall choice.
“It really made me open up my eyes to what I wanted in the long run,” Wilson told me. “The development part is different.”
Wilson dropped out of Michigan after a month and committed to Georgia within a few weeks. Now, after a brief stint as a freshman, he’s splitting time at inside linebacker, and he doesn’t seem to mind.
This has been the Georgia defense’s character for years: plenty of talent, but a lot of snap sharing, with no one putting up big numbers. “That’s how we play,” outside linebacker Mykel Williams explained. “That’s our scheme.”
Williams is a prime example: he was a five-star recruit who is already projected as a first-round choice if he declares for the 2025 draft, with the possibility of a very high pick. Williams had only four sacks last year, so you wouldn’t know it based on that alone. Georgia has not had a player finish in the top ten in the SEC in sacks or tackles for loss since 2020. It’s been five years since a Georgia player placed in the top ten in tackles.
It is not due to a lack of quality players. It is largely due to the abundance of high-quality players. There are only so many plays to go around, and Georgia uses substitutions extensively, particularly in the front seven.
That was something inside linebacker CJ Allen, a highly regarded recruit in the 2023 class, heard from other programs before making his selection.
“I definitely say it would be a little negative, a lot of schools were trying to say Georgia has too much depth, or they rotate too much, something like that or whatever,” Allen joked. “But for me, that seemed like a fantastic opportunity. Because if you’re excellent, you want to play, and the draft influenced my decision. That
played an important role too.” It wasn’t simply the number of players draughted in 2022, but also their situations.
The transfer portal has been relatively one-way: Georgia loses far more on defence than it gains, primarily due to playing time.
In the 2022 class, five-star recruits Marvin Jones Jr. and Jaheim Singletary have transferred, as have top-100 candidate Bear Alexander and two other four-star players. In that same class, Georgia held on to five-star prospects Williams, Malaki Starks, and Daylen Everette, as well as blue-chip talents Jalon Walker, Julian Humphrey, and Christen Miller.
This year, Georgia signed five defensive five-star recruits, and the only one seeing immediate playing time is KJ Bolden. Cornerback Ellis Robinson, the nation’s second-ranked recruit, according to the 247Sports Composite, got 12 snaps in the season opener against Clemson, all in garbage time, then 16 more against Tennessee Tech.
If history is a guide, the young players are willing to wait as long as they see the eventual path to being able to showcase for the NFL.
“I know it’s more about the development for me. Playing early is just a plus,” Wilson said. “The main reason I came here was to get developed. That’s what we do every day. I feel like it’s pretty easy (to deal with not playing as much) if you have your head on right.”
Wilson developed enough that he got the most snaps at inside linebacker against Clemson despite not starting. It looks like Georgia is developing a four-player rotation at the position or at least three (Wilson, Allen, Smael Mondon) with Walker rotating between that and outside linebacker.
The defensive line rotation has been shorter so far — Nazir Stackhouse, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Miller and Warren Brinson when healthy — but should expand once Jordan Hall and Xzavier McLeod are healthy and when freshmen Joseph Jonah-Ajonye and Jordan Thomas and sophomore Jamaal Jarrett are more experienced.
The secondary, where there is usually less subbing, has seen five-star freshman Bolden get early experience as the third safety behind Dan Jackson and Starks. The cornerbacks and nickelback don’t usually rotate but have because of injury (Joenel Aguero missed the opener) and competition at the second cornerback spot.
And at outside linebacker, there’s Damon Wilson, Chaz Chambliss and Gabe Harris, plus Williams, who missed Saturday’s second game against Tennessee Tech with an ankle injury. He seems likely to miss this week’s game at Kentucky but should be back for the Sept. 28 trip to Alabama.
Before the season, Williams, who was originally committed to USC, was asked why players like him come to Georgia and stay in this world of money that can be earned via name, image and likeness deals. The first thing he said was team chemistry. The second was that 2022 NFL Draft. “Travon Walker went No. 1 overall but see what his stats were. None of those guys had gaudy stats, but look where they’re getting drafted and look at their production in the NFL,” Williams said. “It’s just our system and the way we play that doesn’t allow guys to get stats like that. But hey, it works for us.”
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