The Georgia Bulldogs might have an embarrassment of riches on their hands at tight end in 2026.
Call it the Brock Bowers effect, NIL spending, Todd Hartley's wizardry or whatever else you want, Georgia has some specimens lining up at the position next season. It could be the deepest room in the country and has the potential to change everything for the Bulldogs’ offense.
Georgia's TE room will be headlined by star veteran
Lawson Luckie is back for his senior season and will almost certainly be the leader of the room. Luckie has reportedly been the team’s No. 1 tight end throughout spring practice and is easily the most experienced tight end on Georgia’s roster.
"It's definitely an adjustment," Luckie said of his veteran status. "Maybe more of an adjustment than I thought it was going to be, but it's a privilege at the end of the day to be one of the older leaders in the tight end room at the University of Georgia. So, it's a blessing, but you can't have off days as a guy that people look up to."
Last year, Luckie caught 15 passes for 158 yards and four touchdowns, including a touchdown hat trick in Georgia’s regular season win over Ole Miss in October. Luckie is a good route runner for his size with impressive straight-line speed and a knack for finding the soft spots in zone coverage. He could be a more physical blocker, but still profiles as Georgia’s most surefire option at tight end in 2026.
Georgia's youth will be ready to make a name for themselves
After Luckie, the commodities at tight end get pretty interesting. These are guys who may have flashed at one point or another but will likely be thrust into expanded roles in 2026.
Mammoth 6-foot-7, 255 pound tight end Elyiss Williams is back for his sophomore season. His size is the most striking thing about the former four-star recruit, but his route running has drawn praise throughout spring practice and there have been murmurs that his blocking has started to improve as well.
“He's a weapon on the perimeter because of his size, but he's also a weapon on the interior because of his ability to strike and roll his hips, and [he’s] a really good athlete,” head coach Kirby Smart said of Williams.
It’s hard not to see the Darnell Washington comparisons with Williams, though he has the potential to be an even better route runner and thus more reliable down-to-down receiving threat. If the early reports out of camp are true, he could be a big-time option for Georgia over the middle in 2026 and one of the biggest matchup nightmares in the SEC.
Last year, Williams caught seven passes for 117 yards and a touchdown across 13 games. His best game of the year was a three-catch 48-yard day against Kentucky. A 24-yard catch against Mississippi State that required every bit of his giant frame was also a highlight.
Fellow sophomore Ethan Barbour is also back. In another universe, we might be talking about him as one of Georgia’s biggest true freshman contributors in recent memory. The former four-star recruit started Georgia’s first two games of 2025, noteworthy for a true freshman in a room with Luckie and veteran Oscar Delp.
Though he didn’t record any stats, those starting nods say a lot about the way Georgia must have viewed him. Barbour’s regular season was cut short when he suffered a grisly ankle injury against Austin Peay in Week 2 where he had to be carted off with an air cast. He didn’t return until the Sugar Bowl, where he played significant snaps in Georgia’s loss.
Barbour has drawn praise for his physicality and toughness as a blocker, his quickness after the catch and positional versatility. Georgia experimented with him as an H-back, inline tight end and slot receiver in his limited reps last year, and he could be a big-time chess piece for offensive coordinator Mike Bobo in 2026.
One tight end who has been biding his time in Georgia’s system for a while now is former four-star Jaden Reddell, who is entering his redshirt sophomore season. Reddell only caught one pass last year but might have a bigger role in line for 2026.
“He's a stud,” Luckie said of Reddell in mid-March. “I'm excited to see how he continues to progress, but he's had a tremendous offseason, if not one of the best on the team.”
Reddell has drawn praise for his immense speed, with Luckie adding that he can “fly” in that same availability. If Georgia can find a role for him in the offense, he could be one of the most dynamic weapons on the team.
The wild card of the group is true freshman Kaiden Prothro, the four-star recruit who joined Georgia this spring out of Bowdon High School. Prothro has a freakish frame and is listed at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds on the team’s website.
Star freshman is ready to take the world by storm
It’s always tough to project a true freshman to make an impact right away, but Prothro has the opportunity to do that. He’s another player who the Bulldogs have reportedly moved all over the field, even lining him up at X-receiver at times.
“He's a guy that's kind of a semi-receiver, semi-tight end,” Smart said of Prothro. "Most of those guys coming in are. They weren't asked to play a natural tight end position in high school…he's got a ways to go to be physical enough to play at our level, down in and down out. He's a talented pass catcher. He's a large target. He has some twitchiness and quickness to get away from press and get off of press, and we're gonna keep trying to figure out what it is all those guys do best.”
If he can get up to speed with the playbook and find his way on the field, Prothro could give Georgia yet another matchup headache.
Tight end has been one of the more malleable positions in football in recent years, with its dual role as a receiver and lineman giving coordinators room to be creative. Former Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken was excellent at this, and used Bowers and Washington in myriad ways as Georgia captured back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.
Bobo hasn’t been as creative with tight ends, preferring to run a more straightforward, power-based system, but Georgia’s stable of freak athletes and versatile pieces at the position this year may force him to reconsider.
As Georgia adjusts to life without six of its top seven receivers from 2025, it'll need to find ways to get players open and build a rapport with quarterback Gunner Stockton. Under Monken, the Bulldogs were good at identifying matchups they liked and exploiting them with their alignments and pre-snap motions.
We could see a similar approach this season with the depth Georgia has at tight end and the uncertainty surrounding its wide receiver room. There’s a pathway to this being Georgia’s most productive year out of its tight ends since No. 19 was on campus.
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