Georgia football: A quick look at the elite DL group

Georgia football had one of the best front sevens in college football in 2021, but how good will their defensive line be in this upcoming season?

The Dawgs lost three key starters in Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt and Travon Walker, but that isn’t the end of the world.

Georgia has a large group of defensive linemen who are back for the next season that finally have the opportunity to prove themselves.

This group is another one that head coach Kirby Smart focused on in his first six seasons as a head coach. The Dawgs have gone up and down with defensive linemen over the years, so it became a huge emphasis for Smart.

As spring practice is under a month away, let’s look at the defensive line position and how it stacks up this year. We will not include edge rushers in this article, and they will be with the linebackers.

Georgia football has some unproven depth at the defensive line for 2022.

The Dawgs have 13 guys on scholarship at this position, including the 2022 additions.

Leading the pack, of course, is Jalen Carter, who is coming off a monster sophomore season. He will be the heart and soul of this defensive line in 2022.

Past Carter, though, it is all up in the air. Guys like Zion Logue, Nazir Stackhouse, Warren Brinson and Tramel Walthour have gotten playing time as backups, but not significant playing time. Others have gotten some time too, but it’s understandable with Davis and Wyatt getting most of the reps in 2021.

These guys have the perfect opportunity to step up in 2022 and perform. Brinson should excite fans because he is on the track of being similar to Wyatt and getting a lot of reps. He has to continue to work on his aggressive nature.

Some of these young guys coming in as freshmen could take upperclassmen’s jobs if they aren’t careful because they are hungry.

Mykell Williams and Christen Miller are two I expect to get significant playing time this upcoming season and beat some of the older players.

Bill Norton and Tymon Mitchell are two who may need a reality check to get it into gear, or they will be the ones who get beaten. Even guys like Logue, Stackhouse, and Walthour could get their spot taken if they aren’t careful.

This group needs aggressive guys to match Carter as best as they can. The Dawgs want to have a great front seven to keep causing havoc, and right now, a lot of them are unproven. Spring practice will be an excellent chance for them to show us something, but for now, this could be a questionable position for the Dawgs until someone steps up and performs.

Georgia could see one or two guys transfer here to make the scholarship max number, so that should be something to keep an eye on this spring. If a few of these older guys get beaten by the youngsters, they could find another program that needs them.

For now, though, the position is deep, just unproven, so it’ll be fun to see how Tray Scott and the defensive staff get this group ready for the year.