Javon Bullard sees bright future for Georgia defensive backs
Georgia has three defensive backs at the NFL Combine this week, but the Bulldogs are going to be aye-okay when it comes to 2024. Just ask Javon Bullard.
A starter of 23 career contests, Bullard made the jump to the NFL after just three seasons in Athens, but what he saw at practice leaves him knowing Georgia isn’t going to have any drop off.
“Georgia ain’t going nowhere man. Georgia ain’t going nowhere, and I stand by that. I mean that. Georgia’s gonna be around for a long, long time. That defensive back room ain’t going nowhere,” Bullard told reporters on Thursday at the Combine. “Those guys – you saw on Saturdays who’s starting, but you don’t see what those guys do at practice. They flash. You’ve got so many guys in that room. You’ve got David Daniel, Dan Jackson, Joenel (Aguero), Justyn Rhett, JaCorey (Thomas), and that’s not even naming the corners. You’ve got so many guys in that room that can play an elite level of football, and I’m excited for them.”
Bullard spent the 2023 season at safety after playing the previous two at STAR. He got plenty familiar with the depth chart of those two positions, as evidenced by the names he mentioned. One he very clearly forgot to say though was Malaki Starks, maybe the nation’s top returning player at safety and a potential prospect to be in the same position as Bullard – leaving Georgia for the NFL after three years.
Starks has started the last 28 games at one of the two safety spots. The position next to him will be turning over once again though after Bullard stepped in following the departure to the NFL from Christopher Smith this time last year. Now with Bullard going pro too, there’s once again a void to be filled next to the All-American Starks.
David Daniel-Sisavanh got the starting nod in the one game Bullard missed this past season. Dan Jackson has plenty of experience there as well, playing some sort of a role each of the last three years. Then there’s the next wave of talent with the likes of Joenel Aguero – an option at STAR as well with Tykee Smith off to the NFL as well – Justyn Rhett, Kyron Jones, JaCorey Thomas and of course the newcomers, five-star KJ Bolden and Alabama transfer Jake Pope. Leading that group will also be a newcomer to the program this offseason but an assistant plenty familiar with the SEC: Travaris Robinson.
“You’ve got talent out the wazoo, talent everywhere, but it’s the culture,” Bullard said on why he believes Georgia will continue its successful ways even with the program’s winningest group gone. “There’s a standard that we built, and we don’t take it lightly. The standard is going to continue to be the standard now that I’m gone. It was the standard before I got there. Coach Smart does an amazing job of getting guys ready and putting them in places to go where they want to go.”
Georgia is set to begin spring practice in less than two weeks on Tuesday, March 12th. The Bulldogs will conduct a total of 15 sessions including three scrimmages. The final of those on Saturday, April 13th will be open for the public to see in the annual red vs. black G-Day spring game.
