2018 Georgia Football NFL Draft Prospect: DT Trenton Thompson
The 2017 Georgia Football team is going to be sending plenty of its stars to the NFL and one of them is DT Trenton Thompson.
What a difference a year makes! In 2017, Georgia went into the NFL draft with only one prospect who had a shot at being drafted. Just a year later, there’s a chance that UGA could end up seeing a record number of players drafted in a single year. I wouldn’t put it past the Dawgs to go in to double digits this class if a few things break their way.
All of this means that there is plenty for Dawg fans to get excited about. A lot of their former favorites are about to start their new careers. So to celebrate, we’re going to do a breakdown of each player who could end up getting drafted.
Much like the real draft, we’re going to be starting at the top of the class and working our way down. Today, we’re looking a player who came to UGA with all the potential in the world, Trenton Thompson.
How good was he in Athens?
Thompson arrived in Athens with high expectations. He was the number 1 player in the entire country in the 2015 high school class and profiled as a potentially dominant defensive tackle. When he came in, he looked like he’d be a clear 3-year player who would eventually be a high draft pick. Physically he had everything pro teams looked for.
Unfortunately Thompson never quite reached the heights that his talent merited in Athens. His freshman year was kind of a wash. A lot of players on defense struggled in Mark Richt’s final year in Athens. In Kirby Smart’s first year in Athens, Thompson flashed improvement. He showed better technique and looked like an ascending player.
His finest moment in a Georgia uniform came in the Liberty Bowl at the end of Smart’s first year. In that game Thompson dominated, accounting for 3 sacks and was virtually unblockable. That performance meant that a lot of players expected him to take a big step in his junior year.
Unfortunately, Thompson had a shoulder injury that made him miss spring training. That injury lingered for much of the season and he was never quite able to shake it. He also strained his MCL during the season which kept him out for several games. He ended up only playing 35% of snaps this past season and saw the starting role taken by Tyler Clark.