Georgia has a lot of Production that will need to be Replenished
Part of the reason why Georgia was such a well-oiled machine last season was due to the fact that they had a good number of veteran players taking the field, especially on defense. Now with the majority of those players taking off to pursue their dreams of playing in the NFL, it leaves a lot of production to be replaced from the 2021 season.
ESPN staff writer, Bill Connelly put together an article that displayed the percentage of production every FBS team was returning for the 2022 season on both sides of the football as well as the total amount of production returning. It could be worse, but the Bulldogs certainly have their work cut out for them.
Amongst all 131 FBS teams, Georgia ranked 96th on the list with 73% of their offensive production returning, with only 44% on defense, and 59% of total production still on the team.
This is expected when you've experienced as much roster movement as Georgia has over the last month. Over a dozen players declared for the draft along with a good number entering their name into the transfer portal as well. Though there were also some key contributors such as Nolan Smith, Stetson Bennett, and Christopher Smith who made the decision to stay in Athens for one more season that helps soften the blow.
Now if there is anyone who can handle losing nearly half of their team's production from the previous season, it's Georgia. Consistently recruiting top three classes, filling holes on the depth chart on the trail, and Kirby Smart has shown he is not against dipping into the portal and taking players who can contribute immediately either. Definitely, something to watch for over the next couple of months.
The saying has become that the elite teams in college football don't rebuild they reload, and that's what Georgia will have to hope for in 2022. Returning guys like Stetson Bennett and leading receiver Brock Bowers certainly helps, but the Bulldogs will need a good number of new faces on defense to answer the call.
Kirby Smart and his staff have the entire offseason to get his roster prepared for a run at a second national title, but it definitely has the looks of being quite the uphill climb in order to get there by the time week one rolls around.
2022 will be yet another test for head coach Kirby Smart on how effective he and his staff have been at developing the players on their roster and seeing if the new contributors can pick right back up where the players before them left off at.
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