The Combine is behind us, the pro days have come and gone, and the mock drafts have been both drafted and mocked. Now the NFL Draft kicks off in ernest this evening with the first round live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The past couple of iterations of the draft of past with very little involvement from Bulldog Nation. But not this year. There is a real chance that as many as 9 former UGA players could hear their names called over the course of the weekend.
Thursday however is reserved for the first round only, with teams getting 10 minutes apiece to make the first 32 selections of the draft. And it appears likely that at least one ‘Dawg, Roquan "the Montezuma Mauler" Smith will hear his name called this evening. Some projections have Smith going as high as #9 overall to the San Fransisco 49ers, who find themselves in serious need at linebacker.
Other projections have had Smith dropping to the back end of the first round. At only 6’1 and 237 pounds Smith doesn’t have ideal measurables. As teams get further and further from watching actual football they tend to fall back on groupthink and spreadsheets.
Smith could be the victim of that habit. Or teams could remember the sideline-to-sideline havoc Smith wreaked across the SEC landscape in 2017 and draft a real football player. Only time will tell.
There remains some chance that Isaiah Wynn could also sneak into the first round, though teams are likewise a little worried that Wynn doesn’t have ideal tackle length. He just blocks anything and everything that lines up in front of him. Who wants to draft that guy?
The action begins at 8:00 pm across a variety of platforms, with ESPN, FOX, NFL Network, and ESPN2 all providing TV coverage. Until later...
Go ‘Dawgs!!!