5-Star Georgia Recruit Throws Shade at Former Jaguars’ 1st-Round Pick Taven Bryan

Jacksonville Jaguars fans remember the Taven Bryan pick more than most other draft busts. The Jaguars took Bryan before future NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, after all.

Five-star recruit Jordan Hall, a defensive line commit for the Georgia Bulldogs, dragged the Bryan miss into recent comments on his recruitment between Georgia and the Florida Gators during an appearance on the Real Talk Georgia podcast.

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"Really Florida talked about a lot of nothing. So, I was like, Georgia talked about a lot of something. They're going to put people in the league. Florida hasn't put a D-lineman in the league since Taven Bryan and he's terrible, so, hey I'm going to Georgia," Hall said.

While Hall's actual point and argument are considerably flawed considering Florida has put out defensive linemen in the draft in recent years like Gervon Dexter, Zachary Carter, Jabari Zuniga, Jonathan Greenard, and Jachai Polite, it is at least interesting to see that the Bryan pick was such a whiff by the Jaguars in 2018 that is even brought up in recruiting talks today.

Jacksonville took Bryan, an athletic but raw product out of Florida, with the No. 29 overall pick in 2018, passing over other players like Jackson, Nick Chubb, Harold Landry, Jessie Bates, Christian Kirk, and Dallas Goedert. The plan was for Bryan to be a cheap contract along the defensive line to replace expensive veterans like Malik Jackson, but Bryan bounced between defensive end and defensive tackle for the Jaguars during the early stage of his career.

After just 11 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks through the first 48 games of his career -- which saw the Jaguars turn to him as a starter just 17 times -- Bryan was given one last chance under the Urban Meyer regime in 2021. Bryan ended up recording four tackles for loss and two sacks, all while not starting a game.

The Jaguars let Bryan walk in free agency after the 2021 season, with the former first-rounder spending a season with the Cleveland Browns before signing with the Indianapolis Colts this offseason.