ATHENS — Georgia football is loaded with All-SEC players entering into 2023 with 11 first-team preseason picks and 16 in all per last week’s assembled media in Nashville.
Some of the Bulldogs’ players are more of a sure thing than others to make the postseason first-team All-SEC squad.
Tight end Brock Bowers and center Sedrick Van Pran are the two safest bets to show up on the postseason all-star teams and might one day be College Football Hall of Famers, each with two years of starting experience on national championship teams already behind them.
Bowers already has the credentials and is likely a future HOF first-ballot pick, while Van Pran must earn All-American honors this season to become eligible.
Ladd McConkey would also warrant consideration if he were to have a breakout All-American 2023 season. McConkey has been UGA’s No. 2 receiver the past two seasons, making timely plays in the pass game while providing hidden yardage and one of the best punt returners in the nation.
Amazingly, the Georgia roster has turned over so much that those three players — Bowers, Van Pran and McConkey — are the only remaining regular starters from the 2021 team.
Top 11 most irreplaceable Georgia players in 2023
(NOT NFL Draft ranking)
No. 1 Brock Bowers
No. 2 Mykel Williams
No. 3 Javon Bullard
No. 4 Sedrick Van Pran
No. 5 Jamon Dumas-Johnson
No. 6 Malaki Starks
No. 7 Ladd McConkey
No. 8 Amarius Mims
No. 9 Kendall Milton
No. 10 Brett Thorson
No. 11 Smael Mondon
Flashback to 2021
Would you believe the 2021 team — which set a record with 15 NFL Draft picks, including five first-round selections off the defense — had just two first-team preseason All-SEC picks?
Both of those picks, it’s worth noting, are of College Football Hall of Fame ilk, as they were also All-Americans: Jordan Davis and Jake Camarda.
As for those five first-round picks on defense, here’s where they were selected and where they were placed on the 2021 preseason All-SEC team:
1. Travon Walker, preseason third-team pick
13. Jordan Davis, first-team pick
22. Quay Walker, not on team
28. Devonte Wyatt, not on team
32. Lewis Cine, third-team pick
And, yes, Alabama was the pick to win the SEC Championship — which it did — garnering 84 votes to Georgia’s 45.
About last year’s SEC Media Days
Georgia entered 2022 as the defending CFP champs, but there were still enough doubters that the Bulldogs had only six first-team picks: Bowers, Warren McClendon, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Kelee Ringo and Kearis Jackson was selected as a return man.
It’s worth noting there were 16 offensive linemen recognized, but Broderick Jones, the second SEC O-lineman picked in the draft at No. 14, was not a first, second or third-team preseason pick.
Alabama, which had nine first-team picks, was the overwhelming choice to win the league with 158 votes to Georgia’s 18 — and this, in a year where the SEC Media Days were held in Atlanta.
The Tide did not play in the SEC Championship Game, however, as LSU — picked No. 5 in the West at the preseason media days, knocked off Alabama and faced Georgia in the league title game.
