The following, a new weekly feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, allows our reporters to open their notebooks and provide even more information from our local teams that we cover daily. We think you’ll find in informative, insightful and fun.
Stetson Bennett, meet Matthew Stafford
When Stetson Bennett embraced Matthew Stafford in a lower concourse hallway at SoFi Stadium after Georgia won the national championship Jan. 9, he had no idea he would be sitting beside him in the Los Angeles Rams’ quarterback meeting room 16 weeks later.
Bennett was selected by the Rams in the fourth round of the NFL draft Saturday. He’ll be in Los Angeles for the team’s first minicamp May 12.
It’s all still a bit hard for the Bulldogs’ star quarterback to get his head around.
“That was actually my first time ever meeting him,” Bennett said of Stafford, who served as an honorary captain the day the Bulldogs defeated TCU 65-7 in the College Football Playoff Championship game. “I grew up watching him, being a fan of Georgia and all. I never could imagine (working with him).”
Actually, landing with the Rams is about as good of a situation as Bennett could have dreamed. Stafford, 34, missed most of the 2022 season with injuries. But after Stafford announced he does not plan to retire, the Rams picked up the 14-year veteran’s $26 million option for the 2023 season, and that guarantees Stafford a salary of $31 million for 2024.
Currently, Stafford is the only veteran quarterback on the Rams’ roster. Since the draft, Los Angeles has added undrafted free agents Braxton Burmeister (San Diego State) and Dresser Winn (Tennessee-Martin) and reached a deal Thursday with former Broncos quarterback Brett Rypien.
Still, the runway for Bennett getting on the field appears relatively short and unobstructed.
“Obviously, they won a Super Bowl here in the past few years, so they know what they’re doing,” Bennett said of his situation in L.A. “So, I’m excited to go learn. It’s an honor that these coaches and GM thought enough of me to pick me. Now it’s my job to go get better every day.”
Stafford’s presence and influence should help. He had as much to do with Bennett growing up wanting to play quarterback at Georgia as anybody in the world.
“I remember going to Athens and watching him and Knowshon (Moreno) play in ‘07,” said Bennett, who would have been 10 at the time. “So, he’s been around a while.”
Robinson was destined to be a Falcon
Shortly after the Falcons took Bijan Robinson in the first round of the NFL draft, pictures started to surface of a young Robinson in his red-and-black Tucson Falcons uniform.
“My first team was the Tucson Falcons, and I was No. 8,” Robinson said. “That was a fun time playing with them. We stole every slogan from the Falcons. We were the Dirty Birds, and we came through heavy. That was my first team right there.”
With the eighth overall pick, the franchise made Robinson an Atlanta Falcon after a stellar career at Texas.
“It’s just crazy that now we’re here because I wore No. 8 the first year, and then I wore No. 1 the year after,” Robinson said. “That’s how I know that it was all in God’s plan this whole time. We didn’t know at the time that it was going to be this plan right here. It’s pretty cool.”
Robinson remembered his first youth league coach.
“Coach Carlos (Martinez) was my guy, he really helped me as another father figure for me,” Robinson said. “Coach Carlos he did so many great things with me, was the coolest dude. Just how he used me and Pop Warner on the field, it was fun to play with him and fun to play for him. Coach Carlos, I just want to say thank you, you’re amazing man.”
Robinson is set to wear No. 7 in the NFL.
Robinson in line for $21.9 million deal
Robinson is in line to receive a four-year, $21.9 million deal, with the team holding a fifth-year option, according to Joel Corry of CBS Sports.
Robinson’s projected deal will have a 2023 salary-cap number of $3.9 million with a signing bonus of $12.8 million, which would be in line with the rookie wage scale.
Several rookies will sign before their team’s rookie minicamps, which will be held either May 5-8 or May 12-15. The Falcons will use the latter window.
Corry, a former agent and graduate of Emory, is CBS Sports’ NFL contracts and salary-cap expert and a member of the faculty at Sports Management Worldwide.
No first-round trades
The Falcons stayed at No. 8 and drafted Robinson. That meant general manager Terry Fontenot still hasn’t made a trade in the first round during his three-year tenure. The Falcons’ previous regime, led by Thomas Dimitroff, was known for its deal making. Under Dimitroff, the Falcons made five trades in the first round (most notably when the team jumped up the board for receiver Julio Jones in 2011).
Familiar with the Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution spoke with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian on April 28, less than 12 hours after the Falcons drafted Robinson. Sarkisian, of course, was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator from 2017-18 before rejuvenating his college coaching career.
“I think it’s a great fit,” Sarkisian said of the Robinson-Falcons pairing. “I’ve got obviously a lot of respect for the whole organization and (owner) Arthur Blank, (coach) Arthur Smith and Terry, and just what they do and how they’re trying to build it. And get that guy (Robinson) in that situation, I think for an organization that’s ready to take that next step, I think they added an awesome piece to the puzzle.”
One long-time Texas staffer told the AJC, emphatically, that Robinson is one of the best kids to come through the program, promising his uplifting energy would be felt in the Falcons’ facility. On the day he arrived in Flowery Branch, Robinson already was making impressions with his constant smile. Robinson credited God and his family for his approach to life.
“Bijan has never had a bad day,” Sarkisian said. “Every day he wakes up with a positive attitude. He’s trying to be uplifting to others. It’s so consistent of exactly who he is every single day.”
Above the pack
The Falcons taking a running back in Robinson with the No. 8 pick in the modern NFL was a controversial move. But it doesn’t seem likely that Robinson would’ve fallen far if the Falcons passed. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs, a former Georgia Tech player who finished his collegiate career with Alabama, went to the Lions at No. 12. The next running back wasn’t selected until No. 52, so Robinson and Gibbs were viewed well above the pack.
Robinson wouldn’t have dropped into the 20s, as many anticipated before the draft.
“Hey, I don’t know – the NFL draft is crazy,” Sarkisian said when asked if he knew another team would’ve taken Robinson just after the Falcons. “I know he was a highly sought-after player. I think you never know with the draft, especially last night, when it was going to happen. But we felt like it was going to happen early.”
Playing big
Utah cornerback Clark Phillips III, whom the Falcons selected in the fourth round, is only 5-foot-9. A relatable story he shared: “I’ve been this size since my sophomore year of high school. I was taller than everybody early on, then they kind of passed me up. But I’ve always felt big. I feel like the big kid on the block all the time. And I have tremendous strength, too.” He added: “It’s about perspective. For me, I’ve always been dominant. I never really thought about (my size). I use that to my advantage, and I’ve been able to excel.”
Notable
The Falcons drafted six players. Each one served as a team captain for a Power Five program.
Quite an April
The Braves went 17-9 in April. That’s the best April they’ve had under president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos. Previous April records: 10-12, 2022; 12-14, 2021; 14-12, 2019; 14-10, 2018. This was the team’s best April since the 2014 Braves went 17-8 in their opening month.
Youth football legacy
The Gwinnett Chargers youth travel football team existed for only four seasons, 2010-13. The team made its mark, though, one that was felt a decade later at last weekend’s NFL draft. Two players out of the program directed by Kenyatta Watson, now Georgia Tech’s scouting director, were drafted – former Oklahoma offensive tackle Wanya Morris (in the third round by the Kansas City Chiefs) and former Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe (in the fifth by the Arizona Cardinals). On top of that, former Florida A&M linebacker Isaiah Land signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent.
All three later played for Grayson High, where Watson went in 2014 as the team’s director for operations and recruiting. Another former Charger, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Andrew Booth, was taken in the second round of last year’s draft out of Clemson.
“It was just crazy,” Watson said. “Like a dream come true.”
Watson said he knew even when Morris was in sixth grade – with size, a long reach and flexibility – that he had long-range potential.
“I’m like, this kid’s going to be play in the NFL,” Watson said. “It’s crazy how it happened. I’m still in awe.”
Watson said he tried to run the program in the manner of a high-school program, taking the team members on college visits, having them work with a trainer in the offseason and practicing in the spring.
It may not be finished yet. Of the 25 players on the original Chargers team, Watson estimated that 19 went on to play for a power-conference school, including his son Kenyatta II, a Yellow Jackets cornerback. Virginia wide receiver Malik Washington (formerly at Northwestern), SMU center Jakai Clark (formerly at Miami) and Wake Forest linebacker Zach Ranson also are Chargers alumni.
“They’re all over, bro,” Watson said.
Jack gets his day
Late last month, Georgia spent a lovely spring evening honoring one of the greatest Bulldogs of all time.
Jack Bauerle actually announced his retirement as UGA’s longtime men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach a year ago. But when your association with one institution spans five decades and has touched the lives of thousands, literally, it takes a while to plan a party.
Georgia finally celebrated the 71-year-old legend properly on April 22 in the Payne Indoor Athletic Center. More than 1,000 friends from all over the world, including former athletes, UGA professors and current and past coaches attended the sit-down dinner and de facto roast of one of the most affable and accomplished sports figures in UGA history.
There was side-splitting laughter, tall tales, recollected history, statute-of-limitations-released revelations and tears aplenty. Bauerle’s Georgia friends took good care of him, too.
The night’s highlight was when the Philadelphia native was surprised with a Steve Penley painting of Bauerle and his favorite person in the world – Georgia’s late athletic director and football coach Vince Dooley. Also, the pool at Gabrielson Natatorium, where Bauerle did 43 years of hard work that resulted in seven national championships and 11 SEC championships, was named in his honor.
“It was quite a night and certainly one to remember,” Bauerle said this week. “For me, it was especially special since we had over 300 athletes come back. A love fest, really.”
Stephanie Williams Moreno and Neil Versfield succeeded Bauerle as men’s and women’s coaches, respectively, last June. To know Bauerle is to understand why it took two individuals to replace him.
A Philadelphia native who came to UGA to swim in 1971 and never left, Bauerle will remain in Athens in retirement.
-Staff writers D. Orlando Ledbetter, Chip Towers, Ken Sugiura and Gabriel Burns contributed to this article.
