ATHENS — Georgia football has been a fixture atop the SEC throughout Kirby Smart’s tenure, but the gap has been shrinking.

The Bulldogs, who have played in seven of nine SEC Championships since Smart took over as head coach before the 2016 season, have also become the leader in producing NFL draft talent.

Indeed, 13 more Georgia players were selected in the recent 2025 NFL Draft, including three first-round selections.

Next season could be different, however, if recent ESPN 2026 NFL Draft projections prove accurate.

Only one Georgia player, linebacker CJ Allen, was projected as a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL mock draft published by ESPN’s Jordan Reid.

Perhaps more eye-opening is the number of other SEC players projected ahead of Allen — 7 — before the Bulldogs’ middle linebacker is slated to go 20th overall to the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Reid was plenty complimentary of Allen, a third-year starter, noting he’s “a patient second-level defender who quarterbacked one of the country’s best defenses last season.”

But last year’s Georgia team was quarterbacked by a first-round talent in Carson Beck, who has since transferred to greener pastures at Miami, Fla.

The Bulldogs’ current projected starter, fourth-year junior Gunner Stockton, is not high on the radar of any NFL team at the moment.

Reid has four quarterbacks going in the top eight picks of the 2026 NFL Draft, including two from the SEC in South Carolina’s La Norris Sellers (South Carolina) and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier.

The SEC has seven players slated to be picked ahead of Allen, as in addition to Sellers and Nussmeier:

• Alabama OT Kadyn Proctor is projected No. 2 overall,

• Auburn Edge Keldric Faulk is projected No. 10 overall,

• Texas’ LB Anthony Hill is projected No. 11 overall,

• Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy is projected No. 14 overall, and

• Alabama DT LT Overton is projected No. 16 overall

Smart has talked throughout the spring drills and into the offseason about the youth on this upcoming season’s Georgia’s Bulldogs team, and the numbers bear it out.

UGA lists 10 scholarship seniors (including redshirts) on the roster, each one expected to be contributors and NFL prospects: tight end Oscar Delp, punter Brett Thorson, snapper Beau Gardner, guard Micah Morris, receivers Noah Thomas, Dillon Bell and Colbie Young, cornerback Daylen Everette, and safeties Adrian Maddox and JaCorey Thomas.

Transfer safeties Zion Branch (USC), Jaden Harris (Miami), offensive tackle Earnest Greene lll, defensive tackle Christian Miller, center Drew Bobo join Stockton as the only fourth-year juniors.

Georgia has a handful of true juniors who could prove NFL ready, but none — perhaps, outside of CJ Allen — jump out as having sure-fire first-round upside in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Most of UGA’s “true” juniors — OLB Gabe Harris, WR Zachariah Branch, WR London Humphreys, defensive tackle Jordan Hall, offensive tackle Monroe Freeling, LB Raylen Wilson, CB Daniel Harris, TE Lawson Luckie, PK Peyton Woodring and defensive back Joenel Aguero — have plenty of room left to add NFL skills.

Between the youth and relative lack of star power, one early read is the 2025 season looks as challenging — if not more so — than the most recent.