This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star LB Nick Abrams II of McDonogh School in Maryland. He ranks as the nation’s No. 19 LB and the No. 301 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The Rivals Industry Ranking has him as the No. 19 LB and No. 294 overall.
When Georgia pulled the commitment of 4-star LB Nick Abrams II away from Oregon this month, there wasn’t the appropriate level of buzz around DawgNation.
Part of it had to do with timing. His news came one day after 5-star in-state LB Tyler Atkinson chose Texas. Atkinson, the nation’s No. 1 LB, had been an absolute 2026 priority for the class dating back to his freshman year.
When Abrams made his decision one day later on his 17th birthday, there wasn’t the commiserate level of fanfare to highlight his decision.
The intriguing part is that there are a lot more limbs on the development tree for Abrams. Let’s check back in a few years. Abrams should be right there with Atkinson.
Especially after the 4-star with a 3.8 GPA spends a few years marinating in the Butkus Award sauce of the Georgia linebacker room.
The 6-foot-2-plus Abrams, with his size 16 feet, is taller than Atkinson. He’s not a faster on-field processor than Atkinson, but his recorded 4.53 laser time in the 40 shows he’s just as fast, if not faster on the stopwatch.
He didn’t start playing tackle football until the eighth grade. Abrams has only played two seasons at LB heading into his senior year. That’s means there’s a lot of limbs left on the development tree.
There’s also his 83-inch arm length that seems ripped from the new “Fantastic Four” movie. Abrams has Reed Richards-ish traits to the extent his wingspan is only a few inches shy of what would be elite for a 5-star OT prospect.
“It helps me tremendously,” Abrams said. “Before a lineman can get their hands on me, I can get my hands on them and it is just game over. A lot of linemen are going to be bigger than you, maybe stronger than you, but once you get your hands on their chest they are going backwards. There’s nothing they can do about it. That’s a big game changer. I’m just ready to use that this year and continue to use it once I get to Georgia.”
Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann told Abrams that player comps were hard for him even with the All-Americans he’s had in his room.
“First things first, watching me, he couldn’t give me a comparison,” Abrams said. “He said I was different just based on my length and my ability to be so versatile. Like I could be the Jalon Walker, I could rush the passer. I could be the Chris Cole. I could be in coverage, covering either a back or a tight end. I can do anything on the field. I can run with a receiver. Stop the run. Rush the passer. All that stuff and then having the size and length to do it, especially with the speed I have and the fact that I’m still growing, so that was a big thing for him.”
The Roquan Smith connections with Nick Abrams
Abrams and Atkinson will always be compared. That’s how those things go. When Georgia didn’t sign prized Peach State LB Owen Pappoe (Auburn) back in 2019, the program went on to sign Mississippi 5-star Nakobe Dean.
When North Gwinnett star Barrett Carter chose Clemson, the Dawgs still signed 5-star LBs Smael Mondon and Xavian Sorey Jr. in 2021. In the 2024 class, Georgia saw an early pledge flip to Auburn (Demarcus Riddick) and missed out on another in-state 5-star gem when Sammy Brown chose Clemson.
The Dawgs recovered extremely well by signing 5-star LBs Chris Cole and Justin Williams in that cycle.
That’s a lot of big names, but Abrams is already connected to the best LB of the Kirby Smart era. That would be NFL All-Pro Roquan Smith.
The first link showed up when Abrams started playing varsity ball. He initially wanted to be a receiver, but it became clear that he wasn’t another Odell Beckham Jr. in the hands department.
“I got moved to linebacker and in the middle of my junior year I was watching the [Baltimore] Ravens obviously,” he said. “Roquan Smith had the number zero. So you know, Agent Zero. I’m thinking, bro, if I’m going to really do this I’m going to switch my number to zero. I had that whole mentality. Agent Zero. Being a captain of the defense, the man in the middle, so that’s kind of where that mentality comes from.”
“When I wear zero, kind of like a switch flips and I turn into like this guy that can’t be stopped on the field, and then as soon as that jersey comes off, it comes back to this guy you see right here.”
It’s an interesting switch. Abrams likes to cook. He loves playing board games with his family and playing video games with friends. Abrams said he hopes to wear the number zero as soon as it becomes available in Athens.
The second link to Baltimore’s “Agent Zero” came during the recruiting process.
“He called me and I was like ‘Oh my goodness’ and we were just talking,” Abrams said. “He was pitching Georgia. Telling me how great it is and what it did for him. He said he watched my film which was like crazy because I was like ‘How do you have time to do that?’ but we’ve been in contact. I’ve definitely hit him up about some stuff. Just ways to think about the game. Once you have a resource like Roquan Smith, who’s done it at the highest level, you want to pick his brain as much as you can. So talking with him, he’s going to check out some of my games and stuff like that, so he congratulated me when I committed.”
When Abrams live streamed his commitment on his Instgram account, Smith was watching. He commented that they would talk soon after he committed to the G.
When he was taking his OVs, he felt his top two schools were always the Bulldogs and another school. That other school changed up, but the Dawgs were always the constant.
While anything is possible in this age, Abrams said to look for that pledge to stick.
“I’d say it is very secure,” Abrams said. “They’ve given me everything I want. Obviously as a college football player, you are going to get paid. You are going to get offered money. I got offered more money to go other places, but at Georgia you get so much on the back end. You get that possible where you have that slight edge over a linebacker at another place because you go to Georgia, you play against the best and then the [networking and marketing] opportunites in Atlanta. There’s just so many other components to this recruitment other than NIL.”
There was another layer to how the Dawgs separted from a final group that included Alabama, Michigan and Oregon.
“I asked myself one question,” he said. “If I didn’t have football? If I wasn’t a 4-star, would I go to Georgia? And I was like ‘yes’ and I could see myself being a regular student here. Going to games. The atmopshere and then having Atlanta right there. But a little side note, Georgia in my opinion, has the best linebacker room in the country. They have the best linebacker coach in the country. So why not compete with the best? Why not play with the best? Why not, you say you want to be one of the best linebackers in the country. You want to be a draft pick. You say you want to go in the first round. Why not do it with probably a couple of first-round picks in your room now? Those are kind of the two main reasons why."
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SENTELL’S INTEL
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