Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton is coming off a strong 2025 season, but the Bulldogs need him to do even more in 2026 if they want to get back to the business of winning a national title.
Stockton completed 69.7% of his passes for 2,894 yards, 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions while also adding 462 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Georgia won its second straight SEC championship before bowing out to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff.
It was a productive year for Stockton, but he’s going to have to do it with a very different cast of characters in 2026, and the Bulldogs will need to depend more on his arm.
Six of Georgia’s top seven leading receivers from last year are now off to the NFL, with only third-leading receiver London Humphreys returning (18 catches for 276 yards and three touchdowns in 2025).
But there’s high roster turnover every year in college football, especially within the environment we see now. But what’s alarming for Stockton is how exactly the Bulldogs generated that production.
USC transfer Zachariah Branch was invaluable to Georgia’s offense. He caught a program record 81 passes in 2025, 54 more than the next player on the team (Dillon Bell, who just signed with the Minnesota Vikings).
Georgia used Branch in the quick game about as much as a team can possibly use one player. 51.3% of the routes he ran were screens, and he averaged 10.6 yards after the catch behind the line of scrimmage. It worked and made him one of the most effective weapons in the SEC, but it does bring up questions about Georgia’s faith in Stockton as a vertical passer.
Because Georgia was able to get so many “easy-button” yards by throwing it quickly to Branch, it meant Stockton wasn’t asked to do a ton throwing the ball down the field. In fact, his average depth of target of 7.3 yards was the second-lowest in the SEC and the lowest of any quarterback who started in the CFP according to Pro Football Focus.
31.1% of Stockton’s pass attempts last season went to a target behind the line of scrimmage, and 28.2% of his attempts were between 0-9 yards. He completed just 32.1% of his throws of 20 yards or more, which constituted 13.7% of his total attempts.
It’s tough to imagine Georgia will be able to rely on the quick game nearly as much in 2026 without Branch around. That means the Bulldogs will have to rely on Stockton more as a true dropback passer, something he hasn’t had to do too much of, and has yielded mixed results when he’s had to.
Some harsh criticism of Gunner Stockton has come out
Perhaps Stockton’s most infamous critic this offseason is former NFL All-Pro receiver Steve Smith, who called Stockton “doo-doo” and harshly criticized the quarterback’s play while reviewing film of Bell before the NFL draft.
Head coach Kirby Smart took exception to that.
“Do a little more homework,” Smart said. “I think if you look at small sections of it, there are things he can do better. If you look at the total body of work he has, it’s been really good. I think it’s only going to get better with experience.”
“You form your opinion, but we’ve got ours within this building, and we have conviction about Gunner.”
There is plenty of reason to believe in Stockton. He often saves his best stuff for the fourth quarter, and had some big moments throwing the ball downfield in Georgia’s regular season wins over Tennessee and Ole Miss. And though he struggled for most of the Sugar Bowl loss, he did look better in the fourth quarter of that one and made some nice throws.
But even with his ability as a runner, and the talented stable of running backs and offensive linemen Georgia has at its disposal, the Bulldogs will need more out of Stockton as a downfield passer in 2026.
Stockton needs to put more touch on his intermediate throws and get through his progressions quicker. He also has a penchant for taking too many unnecessary hits, and though that toughness made him a fan favorite, it also resulted in him being more banged up than he could have been towards the end of the season.
Georgia went out and got wide receiver Isiah Canion from Georgia Tech as its big transfer portal wideout addition, and sophomores Talyn Taylor and CJ Wiley are expected to take the leap in year two along with redshirt sophomore Sacovie White-Helton. The Bulldogs also have an extremely talented tight end room.
The story of Georgia’s passing offense in 2026 will be if Stockton can improve as a dropback passer while meshing with the Bulldogs’ new-look receiving corps. Early reports from spring practice have suggested he’s trending in the right direction, but at the end of the day it’ll come down to just waiting and seeing.
The Bulldogs are trying to get past the quarterfinal round of the CFP and back into the national title game. To do that, they’ll need a stellar season from Stockton, one that sees more consistency and reliability throwing the ball downfield.
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