Nolan Smith gaining steam as possible first round draft pick in 2023 NFL Draft

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Nolan Smith gaining steam as possible first round draft pick in 2023 NFL Draft

Georgia being well-represented in the NFL draft shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point. The Bulldogs have won consecutive national championships and will send 12 players to NFL combine.

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robinsdawg

Wonder if we'll still be reading about losing 15 to last year's draft, this fall during the season.

Oldddawg76

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/678182#Comment_678182

Yup. I remember.

By season's end, all the networks "experts" scoffed at the Dawg talk about lack of respect going into last season. "lost so many... draft and portal" Questions about SB4... 'defending' champs ranked 3rd" at the start of the season, Can they beat Oregon? Can they stay with Tennessee?

thadec

@Oldddawg76

No need to rewrite history.

1. Absolutely no one picked Oregon over Georgia. Georgia was a 16.5 point favorite in that game. People merely predicted that Oregon would cover the spread because of Dan Lanning's familiarity with UGA's scheme and players and Bo Nix being a talented guy who finally had a good supporting cast. But absolutely no one picked Oregon to actually win the game.
2. Again, Georgia was an 8 point favorite over Tennessee. Yes, some people picked the undefeated Volunteers with victories over Alabama, LSU, Pitt and Florida (before they fell apart) to beat Georgia. But not being picked by every single person to win every single game is not disrespect.
3. Yes, UGA was picked to finish #3 this season. See #2. Apparently, UGA fans are now depicting "failure for everyone to prostrate themselves before mighty UGA and worship the ground that they walk on" is disrespect. But here is some reality. One of the teams that was ranked ahead of UGA preseason was Ohio State. The people who did that had no idea that Ohio State's best NFL prospect on offense, WR Jaxon Smith-Njiba, and their third best prospect, RB Miyan Williams, were both going to be injured. Ohio State playing UGA without Smith-Njiba and Miyan Williams would have been the equivalent of UGA playing Ohio State without Jalen Carter and Kelee Ringo. Considering that Ohio State came within a missing field goal of beating UGA without those guys, then picking Ohio State over UGA was less about disrespecting Georgia than it was about acknowledging that Ohio State was an outstanding team that had the potential to field one of the best offenses in college football history. Had Smith-Njiba and Williams played this season, and been paired with the Marvin Harrison Jr. who roasted UGA's defense and Emeka Ogbuga's 1000 yard season receiving, they would have. Now if you want to whine about Alabama being picked over UGA this season, go ahead. But in the process, please note that Alabama actually had more players invited to the combine (13) than UGA did (12). Alabama's problem this season was coaching, not talent. The turnover on Saban's coaching staff this offseason was proof of this, especially their defensive coordinator Pete Golding leaving to take the same job at Mississippi State. Giving up 56 points to Tennessee and 31 to LSU when you send 8 defensive players to the combine has consequences (especially considering Bama will have at least 6 defenders drafted next year including 1st rounders Kool-Aid McKinstry and Caleb Turner).

reddawg1

Herbstreit, McCafee and Howard all picked Tenn on ESPN game day show. Even though they were an 8.5 point underdog by Vegas. All anyone needs to know about disrespect last year. ANd the beat went on from there.

SmartsTheMan

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/678192#Comment_678192

Let me get this straight. Oldddawg76 - sounds like a UGA fan?

Is making excuses for why OS lost to GA - "they were missing starters. They missed 1- field goal." (Never mind the fact that their all-world offense failed to drive the ball closer to the endzone, which would've made the attempt much more likely.)

In this very article it states, "But one Georgia player has emerged as a candidate to be taken in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, as Daniel Jeremiah slotted Nolan Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs in a mock draft for NFL.com."

Smith was far from the only GA starter lost for the season. You totally disregard the fact that Georgia's best kicker of all time missed two field-goals against OS.

There were a few talking heads that said Oregon had a real chance against Georgia.

The difference (the reason Georgia won and OS lost) was the same difference in 2021 Georgia and Alabama.

Georgia finished the game with more depth. Georgia was the better team in both games.

If you really are a UGA fan, I'm sorry that you can't seem to enjoy the success. More likely, you're just a fan of another team, who didn't like seeing Georgia's success.

Unknown

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Mosesnatty41

Nolan will definitely go before Ringo. I am so sick of people over-rating Ringo. He ran an interception back for the Natty that was awesome, but that was a desperation throw from Young that was forced and Alabama was out of WR. The interception was not because of his awesome coverage skills (on that play). If you look at the basic coverage skills - Ringo got burned more than any other. His lateral quickness and coverage on quick slants is terrible. He also seems to not give it all he's got on the field. He has moments of greatness (like the interception in the TENN game). but his overall body of work in basic coverage is not great. I predict he will fall to the 2nd round or very late 1st round if a team is desperate for the 3rd cornerback off the board. If he does sneak into the first round, GA has a good chance to place 5 draft picks in the 1st round again (JC, DW, NS, BJ, KR).