Tag: sec east football news

Former UGA signal callerJake Fromm battling for Bills backup QB position

Former Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm is trying to secure the Buffalo Bills backup quarterback position. Details here

The Buffalo Bills have a decision to make at backup quarterback. Former Georgia star Jake Fromm or NFL vet Matt Barkley?

Before Fromm was drafted out of Georgia in the fifth-round of last year’s draft, the Bills kept only two quarterbacks on their roster since 2018, star starter Josh Allen and eight-year vet Matt Barkley.

If Fromm did enough in year one to prove he can take over backup duties, it makes sense for the Bills to let Barkley go and let Fromm grow into the role, especially when you consider the fact that Barkley is scheduled to become a free agent on March 17 if he isn’t resigned by then.

It also would be much cheaper for the Bills to keep only Fromm and as defending AFC East champions, Buffalo will want as much flexibility with their pay roll as possible to make a title run.

Fromm helped lead Georgia to an SEC Championship, Rose Bowl win and a national championship appearance in 2017, earning SEC Freshman of the Year honors on top of being named Freshmen All-American.

Fromm left Athens ranked third on Georgia’s all-time passing yards list (5,376) behind Aaron Murray and David Greene and is ranked first in career completion percentage at 64.9% and is the winningest quarterback in Georgia football history (24-5).

 

A new episode of “UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton” is streaming now! J.C. talks the latest college football news and breaks down Georgia’s 2022 recruiting class and more. Listen here:

 

LSU transfer TE Arik Gilbert decommits from Florida

Former five-star recruit and LSU tight end Ark Gilbert has decommitted from Florida.

Former five-star recruit Ark Gilbert entered the transfer portal after just one season at LSU. Then, on Jan. 31, Gilbert announced his new destination, the University of Florida.

Gilbert tweeted this on Sunday afternoon.

Georgia football was rumored to have a good shot at landing Gilbert before he committed to transfer to the Gators. Gilbert was rated as the No. 1 tight end in the country coming out of Marietta, Ga., in the 2020 recruiting class.

Last season Gilbert caught 35 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns while LSU tried to solidify its starter at quarterback after losing 2020 Heisman winner Joe Burrow to the NFL. His athleticism is impressive and at six-foot-five, 253 pounds, he has the size to be a matchup problem when paired with the right arm.

DawgNation will say that arm is right here in Athens with Georgia quarterback JT Daniels, but the reality is that the Bulldogs are solid at tight end right now.

Darnell ‘Big O’ Washington returns for his sophomore season, last year’s starter John Fitzpatrick will be back as a senior and Georgia signed four-star Brock Bowers as a part of the 2021 recruiting class.

 

A new episode of “UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton” is streaming now! J.C. talks the latest college football news and breaks down Georgia’s 2022 recruiting class and more. Listen here:

 

Georgia football is returning the highest-graded backfield in CFB

According to Pro Football Focus, Georgia is returning the best backfield in CFB for 2021. Details and analysis here.

Georgia is also known as ‘RBU’ and for good reason. The Bulldogs are like a workshop for elite college and NFL running backs.

Guys like Knowshon Moreno, Todd Gurley, Keith Marshall, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb and D’Andre Swift are just some examples of recent Georgia running backs that have either dominated SEC play, or have went on to productive NFL careers

What about the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs?

Things are business as usual in Athens. According to Pro Football Focus, who grades each player on each play in college football, Georgia is returning the highest-graded backfield in all of college football.

The Bulldogs return four running backs who each received a rushing grade of 80 or more this past season. The next closest is Alabama and Texas A&M at two a piece.

Those Bulldogs are junior Zamir White, junior James Cook, sophomore Kenny McIntosh and freshman Kendall Milton. 

White, the leading rusher from a year ago, will most likely be the No. 1 option with Cook, Milton and McIntosh cleaning up the rest of the touches equally. We may even see a second-year surge from Milton, who earned Freshman All-SEC honors and showed flashes of greatness in limited carries before missing time with a minor knee injury. He should be back and ready to go against Clemson in the Sept. 4 season opener.

Here’s a look at each Georgia rusher in 2020 by the numbers:

Zamir ‘Zeus’ White:  10 games played. 144 carries for 779 yards and 11 touchdowns with a 5.4 yards per carry average.

James Cook:  Eight games played. 45 carries for 303 yards and three touchdowns with a 6.7 yards per carry average.

Kenny McIntosh:  Eight games played. 47 carries for 251 yards with one touchdown and a 5.3 yards per carry average.

Kendall Milton:  Seven games played. 35 carries for 193 yards and a 5.5 yards per carry average.

 

A new episode of “UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton” is streaming now! J.C. talks the latest college football news and breaks down Georgia’s 2022 recruiting class and more. Listen here:

UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton: S1, Ep. 22: CFB Roundup and 2022 Recruiting Class Outlook

Listen to a new episode of the UGA Football Live podcast here. J.C. talks college football news and looks at UGA’s 2022 recruiting class.

Your friends at “UGA Football Live” and UGA Wire present your one-stop shop for all things Georgia football!

This offseason we will be releasing episodes each Thursday with interviews, news and rumors and more!

In this week’s episode, I touch on some recent Georgia and college football news, including a new hire within UGA football and interesting statements by Notre Dame and Northwester on EA Sports new college football video game plans. Also, I break down Georgia’s 2022 recruiting class and look ahead to the Bulldogs’ pro day on March 17.

Listen here, on Spotify:

 

Or here, on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uga-football-live-with-j-c-shelton/id1533295384#episodeGuid=Buzzsprout-8040537

Also I talk:

  • Dawgs in the NFL Draft 

There are a few stats about NFL Draft-bound Dawgs that may surprise you.

 

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review! And check out our other episodes featuring former Georgia greats like Tavarres King (Ep. 3)  Keith Marshall (Ep. 4) Arthur Lynch (Ep. 6) Malcolm Mitchell (Ep. 7) Drew Butler (Ep. 9) Aaron Murray (Ep. 17) and Brandon Boykin with Chris Burnette (Ep. 18).

 

Report: Tennessee Titans shopping 2020 first-round pick, former UGA OT Isaiah Wilson

The Tennessee Titans are reportedly shopping their 2020 first-round pick Isaiah Wilson. Details here.

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Just a few days after Tennessee Titans tackle Isaiah Wilson tweeted that he was done with football as a Titan, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that the team is shopping their 2020 first-round pick.

The No. 29 overall pick was put on the COVID-19 list twice during his rookie season, once during training camp and another time in October. He saw the field for four snaps before being added to the team’s non-football injury list in December.

And to add to the mishaps, Wilson was given a trespass warning when Tennessee State University police broke up an off-campus party during training camp and in September, he was arrested and charged with a DUI after running his car into a wall.

Titans general manager Jon Robinson spoke on Wilson’s status in a press conference earlier this month and said that the team had not been on contact with Wilson since he was placed on the team’s non-football injury list in December.

Via Jim Wyatt of the Titans’ website. “He’s going to have to make a determination on whether he wants to do what it takes to play pro football. That will be on him,” Robinson said.

Wilson, a Brookyln, N.Y., native and former 5-star recruit, played 25 games for the Bulldogs and earned AP ALL-SEC second team honors in 2019.

He never had behavioral issues during his time in Athens that we are aware of, so the bad relationship here with the Titans is perplexing.

One Georgia Bulldog goes in the first-round of USA TODAY’s latest NFL mock draft

Here’s what Georgia Bulldog was taken in the USA TODAY’s latest NFL mock draft.

The USA TODAY’s Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire recently released his first NFL mock draft of the year and there is one Georgia Bulldog on the lineup.

That’s star linebacker, 2020 Peach Bowl MVP, Azeez Ojulari. The 2020 SEC sack leader is projected to land with the Tennessee Titans at pick No. 22 in the first-round.

In 27 games at Georgia, Ojulari racked up 71 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, 14 sacks and five forced fumbles. And in 2020, his most dominant season, was named a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s best defensive player, and earned second team All-SEC honors by both the Associated Press and the league’s coaches.

Ojulari would be a great fit for the Titans, who have a good young defensive coach in Mike Vrabel and run a 3-4 scheme similar to what Ojulari played in under coach Kirby Smart and defensive coordinator Dan Lanning at Georgia.

If Ojulari can pick up in the NFL where he left off in the Bulldogs Peach Bowl win over Cincinnati, he’ll be a star wherever he lands.

Ojulari and the rest of the NFL Draft-bound Bulldogs will look to boost their draft stock during the Georgia pro day scheduled for March 17th.

The draft is scheduled for Thursday, April 29 to Saturday, May 1 on NFL Network and ESPN.

 

Watch: Georgia head coach Kirby Smart’s hilarious ‘I’m busy can I call you back’ Tik Tok

Even Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is on Tik Tok. In a Twitter post on Wednesday night, Smart posted the poplular Tik Tok facetime challenge: ‘I’m busy, can I call you back.’ The guest list is impressive… pic.twitter.com/6bt9eU8YMi – Coach Kirby …

Even Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is on Tik Tok.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday night, Smart posted the poplular Tik Tok facetime challenge: ‘I’m busy, can I call you back.’

The guest list is impressive…

UGA great Nick Chubb, junior running back James Cook, UGA great David Pollack, junior defensive tackle Jordan Davis and NFL Draft-bound Richard LeCounte all answered a random call from Smart with absolutely no warning and then he hangs up.

By now, we have to assume the guys knew what was going on right? Coaches have been doing this for what seems like a few months now.

Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell had a great one.

 

 

Will UGA great A.J. Green be back with the Bengals?

Former UGA receiver A.J. Green’s contract ends soon. Where will the 10-year veteran wind up? Details here.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green is set to become a free agent on March 17, which marks the end of a one-year, $18 million franchise tag contract.

The Georgia legend was drafted by the Bengals with the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft and has had an incredible 10-year career in Cincinnati, especially when you consider the state of the Bengals organization.

Paired with the arm of former TCU quarterback Andy Dalton from 2011-2019, Green caught his way to seven straight Pro Bowls and was named by his peers in the NFL Top 100 each year until 2020, when Green struggled with injuries and the new turnover in Cincinnati.

The Bengals hired head coach Zac Taylor who brought in a new offense and a new quarterback in No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow, but even with Burrow heathy for the first half of the season, Green just never looked comfortable with the offense and his injury issues made the gap larger.

ESPN’s Ben Baby quotes Green here after the Bengals loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 14.

“I love my time here,” Green said. “Who knows what is going to happen? I will be ready for anything and be excited to get back to playing football whether it is here or somewhere else.”

Green’s injuries were minor and the 32-year-old still sounds like he has gas in the tank. The question is where to now?

If Green is looking for a title contender, I’d say look now further than the L.A. Rams, who just acquired Green’s college quarterback, UGA great Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions.

Wherever Green winds up, I hope he finally gets a chance to play in a Super Bowl.

Rams DB excited about addition of former Georgia QB Matt Stafford

LA Rams DB Jordan Fuller is excited about the addition of former Georgia football and Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford.

The only way to be the best is to train with the best. And although new Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford may not be the best in a literal sense, he’s still considered an upgrade over Jared Goff.

But Stafford is pretty high up there when it comes to the NFL’s best quarterbacks. Look what he’s been able to do since 2010. He has a completion rate above 64% in each of the last six seasons, he had the 2nd-highest passer rating under pressure in 2020, he’s finished top 10 in passing yards seven times and he’s only had a 100-yard rusher in 11 of 166 games played. 

So it’s no wonder Rams defensive back Jordan Fuller is excited for Stafford’s arrival in Los Angeles.

Fuller, a second year pro out Ohio State, shared his excitement while on Good Morning Football.

Fuller is yet to go up against Stafford during his NFL career, but that’s about to change in a big way very soon.

UGA great Geno Atkins leads all NFL DT in this stat category

Check out this stat by Pro Football Focus on former Georgia Bulldog Geno Atkins. Details here.

Former Georgia Bulldog Geno Atkins has long been one of the top defensive tackles in the NFL. He was named to the 2010’s All-Decade Team, despite being an undervalued fourth round pick out of Georgia.

Atkins measured at six-foot-one, 293 pounds at the 2010 NFL Combine, significantly smaller than the prototypical NFL defensive tackle, but his size, or lack there of, has not mattered one bit.

Pro Football Focus recently released their list of defensive tackles with the highest amount of quarterback pressures since 2010 and, no it’s not three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald.

Granted, Donald was drafted by the Rams in 2014, so Atkins has about a four-year head start, but regardless, Atkins has proved to be one of the best interior defensive lineman in this generation and looks to be on track for Canton one day.

Don’t forget the 8-time Pro Bowl selection got his start in Athens where he earned First-Team All-SEC honors in 2007 and Second-Team All-SEC honors in 2009.

Now, Atkins enters his 12th season for the Cincinnati Bengals in the third-year of a four-year, $65 million contract extension that he signed back in 2018.

Check out what Atkin’s opponents had to say about the two-time First Team All-Pro in this NFL Top 100 Players feature (2019):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isTi_molMVA