With the NFL Draft beginning this Thursday, UGASports concludes our series on mock drafts this year with the final edition of the Bulldogs Mock Draft Tracker. We released the tracker's initial version in late January, which was followed by version number two a month and a half ago.

We analyzed the same five multi-round mocks as before, all of which have been updated for the upcoming draft: Drafttek, Pro Football Network (PFN), and Walter Football, each of which projects all seven rounds; Tankathon, which forecasts the first four rounds; and A to Z Sports, which only projects the first two rounds.

The five mock drafts forecast 16 different former Georgia players to get drafted this week. Of the three seven-round mocks, two (Drafttek and Walter Football) project 13 Bulldogs to get drafted, while the other, PFN, forecasts 12.

Four former Georgia players are projected to be drafted by all five mock drafts (mocks’ average overall selection in parentheses): Jalon Walker (8.4), Mykel Williams (16.2), Malaki Starks (21.8), and Tate Ratledge (75.6). Notably, although not forecasted in A to Z Sports’ two-round mock draft, Jared Wilson appears in all the other mocks with an average overall selection of 71.8.

In the table below, each player is first identified with whether their draft stock increased ⬆️ or decreased 🔻 when compared to the second draft tracker from last month. A number follows the symbol for most players, representing the difference in average overall selection since the initial tracker. For instance, Walker’s average overall selection was 15.4 for the second version, followed by an 8.4 average for the current version. That’s an increase of 7.0 places since March’s draft tracker.

After their increase/decrease since the last tracker, each player is followed by a projected round, an overall pick in parentheses, and selecting NFL team, according to the five mock drafts:

Of the 16 former Georgia players appearing in the five mock drafts, a dozen of them improved their draft status since the previous draft tracker. At first glance, defenders Dan Jackson and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins had the most significant improvement in overall selection, each improving their draft status by approximately two rounds. According to PFN, Jackson jumped from the No. 222 overall selection to No. 153. As for Ingram-Dawkins, he went from not getting drafted in all of the five mocks in the initial tracker, to being featured in two mocks with a No. 226 average overall selection in the second tracker, to finally being featured in the same two mocks but as a middle fifth-round selection at No. 160.5 in the current tracker.

At the top of our table, Walker is the consensus pick to be the eighth overall selection by the Carolina Panthers. In our initial tracker, his average overall selection was just at No. 21.2, or the third-highest among Georgia players. Entering the draft, the highest the Carolina Panthers have ever selected a former Georgia player was at No. 14 with linebacker Thomas Davis in 2005. The highest a Georgia linebacker has been chosen in the draft was at No. 8 with Roquan Smith of the Chicago Bears in 2018.

Averaging an overall selection of No. 16.2, Williams is projected by two of the mocks to be the No. 15 pick by the Atlanta Falcons. As often mentioned, the Falcons in their history haven’t made a habit of drafting Bulldogs, as only 12 former Georgia players have been drafted by the local professional team (including UGA basketball player Ray Jeffords in 1968) in 59 NFL drafts. What’s more, the highest the Falcons have ever drafted a Georgia player was the 80th pick of the 1981 NFL Draft with defensive back-return man Scott Woerner.

According to Drafttek, Walker, Williams, and Starks will all be selected in the first 13 picks of the draft. From what UGASports discovered, there have been approximately 20 instances when at least three defensive players from the same school were drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft (including Georgia in 2022 when the Bulldogs had five defensive players selected in the first round). However, three defenders from the same school have never been selected in the first 13 picks of the same draft, and just once were three from the same school drafted among the first 14 picks (Florida State in 2006).

For former Georgia players, no matter where they get drafted, or which team drafts them, a trend will certainly continue beginning this Thursday. After averaging 10.5 players selected annually over the previous four years (2021-2024), including a draft-record 15 chosen in 2022, the Bulldogs certainly appear to have double-digit draftees this year. Perhaps the only question is if they can challenge their draft-record total from three years ago.

The NFL Draft will run from this Thursday, April 24, to Saturday, April 26, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.