In the eight seasons Kirby Smart has been the head coach at Georgia, he has lost only 16 games.
He now has 17 total first-round draft picks following the selections of Brock Bowers and Amarius Mims in the first round of the NFL draft Thursday night.
Bowers was the first Bulldog off the board, as the Las Vegas Raiders drafted the talented tight end with the No. 13 pick.
Bowers had been seen as one of the top players in the draft after a stellar career at Georgia. In his three seasons with the Bulldogs, Bowers caught 175 passes for 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns.
Quarterbacks were taken with six of the first 12 picks in the draft, which dropped Bowers right into the lap of the Las Vegas Raiders.
“If you can’t get the quarterback, then you put the quarterback you do have with Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell, get him a multi-positional weapon,” ESPN’s Louis Riddick said of the selection. “This guy is just a weapon period. If you don’t have the trigger guy, then find somebody who can make that trigger guy a lot better. And this can do it. He will own the middle of the field. Own it.”
Bowers becomes the highest-drafted tight end since the Falcons took Kyle Pitts with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
Georgia has now had a tight end taken in the past six NFL drafts, with Bowers being the highest drafted of the group. Bowers was a three-time All-American in his time at Georgia, joining David Pollack and Herschel Walker as the only players in school history to accomplish such a feat. Bowers also became the first player to win the Mackey Award twice.
Mims did not have to wait much longer, as the Cincinnati Bengals took Mims with the No. 18 overall pick.
While Bowers was the only tight end taken in the first round, Mims was one of nine offensive linemen taken in the first round. Mims was the fifth to come off the board.
At 6-foot-8 and 340 pounds, Mims is one of the more physically impressive players in the draft. Yet he made only eight career starts in his time at Georgia in part because of an ankle injury he sustained during his junior season at Georgia.
“The biggest hands I’ve seen in a while,” ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. said of the pick. “Long, long arms. Unbelievable arm length. Only eight starts, he had the ankle this year, but if you look at him, I love his footwork and agility for such a huge massive bookend. Run blocker, you talk about his powerful hands, he displaces defenders on initial contact and down blocking prowess, developing into a force at the second level, that can happen.
“As a pass blocker he’s still a bit raw, but he has pretty good movement, the power of a base anchor and arms to lock out.”
Mims becomes the fifth offensive tackle to be drafted in the first round after playing for Smart at Georgia.
Georgia was one of six schools to have multiple first-round picks. Washington, Alabama and LSU led the way with three draft picks each, while Penn State and Texas were tied with Georgia.
The second round of the draft is set to continue at 7 p.m. Friday. Wide receiver Ladd McConkey is expected to hear his name called early on at the start of the second round, while cornerback Kamari Lassiter, Javon Bullard and Sedrick Van Pran all are hopeful to hear their names called.
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