Kirby Smart knows how to build a football program.
And, come Thursday night, the nation will be reminded the 10th-year Georgia head football coach knows how to build and develop student-athletes into NFL players.
The 2025 NFL Draft starts at 8 p.m. on Thursday, with three Bulldogs expected to be selected in the first round.
Linebacker Jalon Walker, Edge Mykel Williams and safety Malaki Starks are expected to hear their names called as the draft takes place in Green Bay, Wisc.
RELATED: Georgia players at NFL combine aim to sustain Dawgs’ rich draft history
In fact, per a recent ESPN mock draft, there will be 13 Georgia players selected before the last name is called in the seventh round on Saturday.
Seeing Bulldogs walking across the stage and being featured in highlight packages is the best advertisement Smart could possibly have in this age of the transfer portal and recruiting.
Players in today’s college football world — recruits and transfers — consider NIL money, but also, the value and fit of development in programs.
“You have got to think about the long run,” rising Georgia star KJ Bolden told DawgNation. “You know NIL money that’s like short-term money. You are only getting that money right now for the moment. The big money is really the NFL money.
Smart and Georgia have NIL money, but also, the richest NFL draft history in recent years.
NFL teams are looking for the same characteristics and qualities each year, Smart has noted.
“What’s their care factor for football? How important is football to them? Will financial opportunities change them? Are they dependable? Are they good people?” Smart said, asked after the 2024 Georgia Pro Day for the sorts of questions NFL GMs and head coaches are asking him.
“I think more and more the NFL is turning to guys who care about football, putting team over self. We try to promote those same things here.”
The NFL record for most players selected in a draft from one school is 15 — set by Smart’s UGA program in a 2022 NFL Draft that included an eye-popping five first-rounders …
• Travon Walker (No. 1, Jacksonville)
• Jordan Davis (No. 13, Philadelphia)
• Quay Walker (No. 22, Green Bay)
• Devonte Wyatt (No. 28, Green Bay)
• Lewis Cine (No. 32, Minnesota)
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft, Georgia leads the nation in most NFL draft picks since 2020:
49 – Georgia
46 – Alabama
45 – Michigan
43 – LSU
36 – Ohio State
33 – Penn State
27 – Notre Dame
26 – Clemson
25 – Florida
24 – Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma
21 – USC, Auburn
20 – South Carolina
19 – Iowa, Kentucky
“If you want to be developed and go to the NFL and really have an opportunity to make a difference on the next level, that’s where to go,” Philadelphia safety Lewis Cine said at this year’s Super Bowl Media opening press conference. “They get you prepped, they get you ready, you learn everything that you need to learn to make a difference here.”
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