As another Georgia player, Solomon Kindley, recently declared early for the NFL Draft—and while Bulldog Nation anxiously awaits if any others, especially a particular standout quarterback, will join the early departures—we recall the individuals over the last three decades who decided to enter the draft with eligibility remaining, including those who, unfortunately, would go undrafted.
Beginning in 1989, or when the first true junior, who had not already graduated, been previously redshirted, or elected for the supplemental draft, was allowed to enter the NFL Draft, and through last year, there were more than 1,750 early entrants, including 41 Bulldog players. Of these, only 65.7 percent would be drafted, which equates to more than one-in-three undrafted early entrants who likely would have benefitted from at least one extra season playing college football.
The following graph reveals the yearly total of early entrants into the NFL Draft who had at least a year of eligibility remaining (top line), and, of those, the number which got drafted (bottom line). Noticeably, the totals of annual early entrants during the first two decades were roughly in the same ballpark (primarily between 35 and 55) before beginning to steadily increase in 2011-2012, followed by a tremendous spike five-six years ago.
Specifically for Georgia, Kindley became the fourth Bulldog to declare early for this year’s draft, joining Andrew Thomas, Isaiah Wilson, and D’Andre Swift, and tying the program-high for early entrants in a single year. Previously, four Georgia players also decided to go early just a year ago.
Still, most of Georgia’s early entrants the last 30-plus years seemingly made a logical decision as nearly half were selected in the first or second round, and two-thirds picked within the first three rounds.
Contrarily, only five of Georgia’s 41 early entrants weren’t drafted at all (and all but one of those at least landed on an NFL regular/post-season roster), paling in comparison to the staggering national average of more than 34 percent of early departures going undrafted.