Georgia rookies earn spots on NFL All-Rookie Team projection

A pair of former Georgia Football players were included on NFL.com’s projections for the 2023 All-Rookie Team this week. After being picked in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, both Jalen Carter and Broderick Jones made the cut according to Chad Reuter.

On Carter: My guess is that memories of Carter being drafted outside of the top five will begin to fade as the Georgia product makes an instant impact between the lines in Year 1. Depending on the call, he can rotate with veteran Fletcher Cox and 2022 first-round selection Jordan Davis, getting upfield in a hurry to wreak havoc.

On Jones: Left tackle was a major issue for the Steelers last year. It won’t be in 2023 if Jones uses his athleticism to play balanced in pass pro and gets after this man in the run game. It might take the 22-year-old two or three games to get used to the speed and power of veteran edge rushers, but he’ll eventually find his groove.

Carter was taken No. 9 overall by the Philadelphia Eagles after a somewhat surprising slide out of the top five. Considered at one point to be the potential top pick, Carter ran into trouble off the field this spring. Experts and scouts questioned his character, and as a result, he fell down the draft board.

Still, there’s no denying that Carter is one of the top players to be picked. Furthermore, he’s going into a situation that should be of benefit to him with four of his college teammates set to play alongside him.

In three seasons at Georgia, Carter totaled 83 tackles including 18.5 for loss with six sacks. A five-star prospect coming out of Apopka, Fla., he played in all 10 games his freshman year and all 15 during his sophomore season in 2021, helping the Bulldogs to the program’s first National Championship in 41 years on a generationally good defensive unit that included four first round selections on the defensive line alone.

This past season, Carter earned unanimous All-American honors despite being limited to just 13 games and playing through injuries in some of those. Carter sprained his ankle in the opener against Oregon. He suffered a knee injury less than a month later versus Missouri. That caused him to miss two games completely. However, after returning from injury, Carter was a different kind of player.

Over the course of a five game stretch spanning from November 5th to December 3rd (Tennessee to LSU), he totaled 7.0 tackles for loss including 2.0 each against Tennessee and LSU. Forcing a pair of fumbles versus the Volunteers, Carter was named Bednarik Player of the Week as the top defensive player in all of college football. He also had multiple versus Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, a part of a career-best seven tackle performance in the SEC East clinching win over the Bulldogs.

As for Jones, who was also a highly touted recruit in the Class of 2020, he started games at left tackle for Georgia in each of the last two seasons. When Jamaree Salyer went down, it was Jones who stepped in, starting four contests and playing a significant part in two others. For that, he earned a spot on the Freshman All-SEC Team as voted on by the coaches in 2021.

The 2022 season saw Jones take over completely at left tackle, starting all 15 contests. He was an AP All-SEC First-Team selection before eventually being picked by the Pittsburgh Steelers No. 14 overall this past spring. Jones has already made strides with the Steelers, taking first-team reps during offseason workouts and impressing his new teammates. During the draft process, ESPN’s Mel Kiper described him as “an offensive line coach’s dream” given the fact that he’s incredibly talented but still an unfinished product. That combination of current skill and untapped potential made Jones an attractive option in the first round, the fourth offensive lineman to come off of the board.