Mel Kiper has nine Georgia players in top 10 at position
Mel Kiper released an updated look at the 2023 NFL Draft on Tuesday with his third mock draft of the cycle. It’s time for that after all that’s gone on in the NFL world – Scouting Combine, free agency and a trade that shook up the draft order. Through all the change, one thing has stayed the same, Kiper loves him some Georgia Bulldogs, projecting four in the first round.
But where do those guys stack up overall? Interestingly enough, he’s only got two in his top 25. How about compared to others at their position, and when you look at it that way, who gets added to the list of players he’s sharing an opinion on?
Well, first things first, Kiper still has Jalen Carter in the No. 1 overall slot. Despite projecting him to fall to the No. 6 pick due to trades at the top of the draft and some off-field concerns surrounding Carter, Kiper stands by him as the best football player in the draft.
“Carter is clearly a complicated prospect. In mid-March, he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing for his alleged role in a Jan. 15 car wreck that killed a former Georgia teammate and a recruiting staffer. Carter was sentenced to 12 months of probation and assessed a $1,000 fine and 80 hours of community service. As part of his plea, his attorney told ESPN the state is forever barred from bringing additional charges. He also showed up at his pro day 9 pounds heavier than he was at the NFL combine, and he couldn’t finish the position drills,” Kiper wrote. “The reality is Carter’s stock hasn’t dropped in the eyes of NFL teams, and so I’m not dropping him in my rankings. On the field, he is a fantastic prospect. I moved him to No. 1 in my December Big Board update, and he finished the season playing the best ball of his career. He had 12 quarterback pressures in his final three games for the back-to-back national champs. He was fantastic after he returned in late October from missing two games because of a knee issue. Check out this show of force in the SEC title game against LSU. He’s explosive at the snap and finishes well around the ball, even though he had just six career sacks.”
Carter finished up his Georgia career by being named an unanimous All-American in 2022, one of just 13 in program history. However, as just about everybody knows, his off-field matters have distracted from that ability on the field. Carter totaled 32 tackles on the season including 7.0 for loss, all of which came in a five game stretch after returning to full strength from a few injuries that bothered him early in the year. He was named Bednarik Player of the Week in November after a strong performance against then-No. 1 Tennessee with two sacks and two forced fumbles. Carter followed that up with a career-high seven stops in Georgia’s SEC East clinching victory over Mississippi State. There’s no denying how talented of a player Carter is, but his draft position will rely heavily upon what teams think of him off the field.
The other player Kiper has in his top 25 is Nolan Smith. After a strong performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, Smith jumps back into the rankings. In the preseason, he was in this kind of a spot. Same goes for about halfway through the year, but a torn pectoral muscle in Georgia’s eighth game of the year knocked him down – on top of already being a little bit of an undersized EDGE rusher. Smith had seven tackles for loss in eight games. His 2021 season was strong too on an outstanding defense. But those concerns were enough to knock him down. A dominant day in Indianapolis has him right back in the thick of things according to Kiper and others.
“Welcome back to the Big Board, Mr. Smith. I had him in my top 25 during the season, before he tore his right pectoral muscle and missed the rest of the season. Smith is another rising prospect from the combine — he ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash and had a 41.5-inch vertical,” Kiper wrote. “As I noted in my post-combine list, he is the second-heaviest player to run a sub-4.4 40 and have a vertical jump of more than 40 inches since 2006 (Vernon Davis is the other). Smith had just 6.5 sacks over the past two seasons, but an NFL team could fall in love with his traits. He has also gotten rave reviews about his interviews with coaches and execs in the pre-draft process.”
Broderick Jones and Darnell Washington both were projected first round picks by Kiper in his mock draft released Tuesday, but they are nowhere to be found in the top 25. Jones ranks second among offensive tackles behind Ohio State‘s Paris Johnson Jr. (No. 12 overall) while Washington is third among tight ends with Notre Dame‘s Michael Mayer (No. 18 overall) and Dalton Kinkaid (No. 19 overall). As for other positions, Stetson Bennett is sixth among quarterbacks, Warren McClendon listed eighth among guards despite playing tackle at the collegiate level, Kelee Ringo at No. 8 for corners and Christopher Smith No. 10 among safeties. Don’t forget the kicker either. Jack Podlesny comes in at No. 6 among specialists to round out the Georgia players listed, leaving running back Kenny McIntosh, wide receiver Kearis Jackson, offensive lineman Warren Ericson and outside linebacker Robert Beal as the only Georgia players not ranked in the top 10 for their position.
