ATHENS — Georgia receiver Yazeed Haynes has plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, per multiple published reports.
Rivals.com was the first media entity to report that the Bulldogs’ freshman receiver from the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, Penn., had interest in discussing his football future with other programs.
Haynes played in four games for Georgia this past season and caught one pass for 20 yards and became the third Bulldogs’ receiver to enter the portal.
RELATED: Georgia veteran WR Jackson Meeks reveals why he entered portal
Junior Jackson Meeks and third-year walk-on Mekhi Mews are also among the Georgia players considering different opportunities.
Haynes is no stranger to the transfer process, having made a move for his senior year of high school to North Penn High School where he set a school record with 55 Catches for 1,212 Yards and 13 TDs.
Former Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown, who is now the head coach at Syracuse, once recruited him to Rutgers.
Haynes committed to Rutgers, then he committed to Penn State and then he committed and eventually signed with Georgia.
“At Georgia, I felt like it was really home. The family. It was more family-oriented,” Haynes said in November of 2022.
“I was really close with coach Fran [Brown] and I knew him before he was at Georgia when he was back at Rutgers. He and I already had a relationship.”
But now he may be on the move again, leaving the Bulldogs’ receiving corps looking thin and possibly in need of more transfers.
Georgia receivers coach Bryan McClendon certainly has his hands full with projected Top 5 wide receiver Ladd McConkey expected to enter the NFL Draft and others carefully weighing their options.
The two transfers UGA brought in, Dominic Lovett from Missouri and Rara Thomas from Mississippi State, did not match the impact seen from other elite transfer receivers.
Lovett had 51 catches for 575 yards and 3 touchdowns on the season, but he was held to just 2 catches for 23 yards in the 27-24 SEC Championship Game against Alabama with UGA in desperate need of a spark in the pass game.
Thomas, who has been dealing with a late-season foot injury, did not play against the Tide. Thomas had 23 catches for 383 yards and a touchdown on the season.
Contrast that with how former Georgia receiver Adonai Mitchell impacted the Texas program, scoring two touchdown in the Longhorns’ 34-24 win at Alabama earlier this season and capturing Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors while catching 51 passes for 813 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Alabama receiver Jermaine Burton, who left UGA after helping the team win the 2021 national title, caught a touchdown pass against his former Georgia teammates in the Tide’s 27-24 win last Saturday.
Burton, the sort of explosive threat Georgia was missing after McConkey went down and was slowed by injury, led Bama wideouts with 777 yards receiving and 8 touchdowns on his 35 catches.
It’s easy to understand why Georgia Coach Kirby Smart has said the Bulldogs will need to be aggressive to fill key areas of the team with elite players moving on while other prospects elect to transfer out.
Smart has said many times he is committed to building the program with players recruited out of high school and developed within, but injuries and player attrition at the offensive skill positions could lead the Bulldogs to add a receiver and running back out of the portal this offseason.
List of Georgia players in NCAA portal at time of publication
(ratings per 247Sports composite)
OL Austin Blaske, 2020 signee, 3-star, 529th nationally
PK Jared Zirkel, 2020 signee, 3-star, 1,927th nationally
QB Brock Vandagriff, 2021 signee, 5-star, 17th nationally
LB Xavian Sorey, 2021 signee, 5-star, 26th nationally
DL Jonathan Jefferson, 2021 signee, 4-star, 129th nationally
WR Jackson Meeks, 2021 signee, 3-star, 659th nationally
CB Nyland Green, 2021 signee, 4-star, 72nd nationally
WR Mekhi Mews, 2021 class, walk-on
OLB CJ Madden, 2022 signee, 4-star, 352nd nationally
OLB Darris Smith, 2022 signee, 4-star, 163rd nationally
MLB EJ Lightsey, 2022 signee, 3-star, 494th nationally
WR Yazeed Haynes, 2023 signee, 4-star, 199th nationally
