George Pickens and Brock Bowers are two of the best pass catchers to play for Kirby Smart. The latter was a three-time All-American, while the former was a five-star prospect who made a number of unreal catches.

Expecting an incoming player to live up to either of those former Georgia standouts is a big ask.

Yet according to ESPN’s Craig Haubert and Billy Tucker, one of Georgia’s 2026 signees could follow in either of those footsteps.

That would be Kaiden Prothro, an AJC Super 11 selection.

“Prothro is a long, athletic hybrid WR/TE and can be a seam and red zone target with the length to win jump balls,” Haubert and Tucker wrote of Prothro. “Whether he’s utilized more in a role like Brock Bowers or a George Pickens, Prothro has a rare blend of physical tools and can bring immediate playmaking potential regardless of position.”

Georgia would very much welcome Prothro turning out to be as good as either of those players. Both led the team in receiving in their respective seasons. Pickens caught 49 passes for 727 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2019. Bowers brought in 56 passes for 856 yards and a school-record 13 touchdowns in 2021. Georgia won the national championship when the two shared the field together in 2021.

A lot has to go right for Prothro to put up those kind of numbers. Pickens missed most of the 2021 season because of a knee injury. In 2019, Georgia had to replace its top five wide receivers from the previous season.

The Bulldogs face something similar entering 2026, as they must replace six of their top seven pass catchers from the 2025 squad. Four of those players were at the NFL combine last week in Zachariah Branch, Oscar Delp, Colbie Young and Dillon Bell.

While the wide receiver position is perhaps the biggest offensive question Georgia has in 2026, it does create an opportunity for Prothro to come in and help immediately.

Georgia didn’t go out and add multiple wide receivers via the transfer portal for the first time since the 2022 offseason. The Bulldogs are largely placing a big bet on their 2025 pass catchers to step up next season.

But there’s an opportunity for Prothro that didn’t fully exist for last year’s freshmen. Factoring in the tight ends and wide receivers, Elyiss Williams caught the most passes at just seven.

Williams is an interesting point of comparison for Prothro. Williams was the No. 29 overall player and No. 1 ranked tight end in the 247Sports Composite rankings for his recruiting cycle.

Prothro was the No. 38 overall player and the No. 3 ranked tight end for the 2026 recruiting cycle. Both come from the state of Georgia and both are jumbo athletes. Williams is listed at 6-foot-7 while Prothro checks in at 6-foot-6.

“Coach (Todd) Hartley does a great job of recruiting and developing these guys and getting them ready to play,” Delp said prior to the Sugar Bowl. “We’ve got so many special young guys in this room and on this offense and on this defense that could step up and play whenever. They’re ready for it.”

Because of Williams, Prothro may be better positioned to help at the wide receiver position. While Georgia does have to replace Delp at tight end, Williams, Ethan Barbour and Lawson Luckie all return at the position.

Williams and Barbour both carved out playing time as true freshmen last season, showing it can be done. But those two are now in their second season and have a physical edge over Prothro, who just got to campus.

Georgia did bring in Isiah Canion this offseason at wide receiver, giving the Bulldogs a big-bodied wide receiver on the outside. With Young, Bell and Noah Thomas all leaving, that type of receiver was Georgia’s most glaring need.

CJ Wiley and Thomas Blackshear should be able to play some of the X receiver position, but neither have the same hulkish build that Young did for Georgia. He measured at 6-foot-5 and 218 pounds at the NFL combine last week.

Prothro won’t be as physically strong as Young was right away given the age difference between the two.

But Prothro was a super productive player in high school, setting the Georgia high school record for touchdowns in a career. He won four consecutive state championships for Bowdon High School.

Prothro checks a lot of boxes in terms of what Kirby Smart looks for in recruits.

Expectations are high for Prothro, especially given Georgia’s 2026 recruiting class was a slight step back from where it had been in recent years. He’s one of just two top 50 recruits in the class.

He’d need to put up a truly monster season to equal what Pickens or Bowers did in Athens.

But there’s an opportunity and skillset that creates a path to playing time for the talented freshman. And that might be all the 6-foot-6 pass catcher needs.

“The ones that just got here, I’m so excited,” Smart said in an interview with Jeff Dantzler of Glory Glory. “I got to watch a lot of them play in state championship games. I got to watch eight or nine of them practice with us for the playoffs. And then the rest of them got here in early January and they’re working out.”