2 Georgia football players who should be replaced on the depth chart for 2024

It’s hard to say that the Georgia Bulldogs roster has any flaws. Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game to end a 29-game win streak which is an unheard-of level of dominance in the modern era. You could easily make a case that the Dawgs were one of the four best teams in 2023, and they’ll certainly be one of the 12 best in 2024, ensuring a spot in the College Football Playoff. 

However, there are still a few positions that Kirby Smart has indicated that he’d like to improve upon this offseason. When a national championship is the expectation, perfection is mandatory, and a few changes to the depth chart could get Georgia a bit closer to perfection. 

Here are the two players who I have identified as potential chinks in Georgia’s impenetrable armor. 

The Bulldogs weren't immune to the roster churn that is becoming the new normal in college football. This offseason, they've had 20 outgoing transfers and have just brought six to Athens. However, Kirby doesn't build through the portal and he already locked up the No. 1 high school class in the country again. Maybe some of those young players could see snaps right away on one of the best teams in the nation.

In the SEC Championship, Georgia lost the war in the trenches to an oversized Alabama offensive line and a quarterback with the feet of a running back and the body of a linebacker. The Bulldogs still only surrendered 114 rushing yards, but that loss was a demonstration of the razor-thin margins between an undefeated national champion and a one-loss Orange Bowl champ.

In 2022, the Georgia defense was led by Jalen Carter and that unit only allowed 77.1 rushing yards a game. The 2023 edition didn’t feature a monstrous superstar on the defensive line to strike fear in the rest of the country. That defense was led by the secondary and while the passing defense improved from 54th to ninth, the run defense fell from first to 20th in the country, giving up 113.6 rushing yards a game. 

It was still an elite defense, one capable of winning it all, but the Crimson Tide exploited its weakness. Nazir Stackhouse led Georgia defensive linemen in snaps with 409, but only managed two total quarterback pressures, and only 24 tackles. Both pressures turned into sacks, but he was not a consistently disruptive force in the middle of the defensive line. 

Stackhouse returned for his fifth year at Georgia, maybe because the NFL wasn’t too interested. The Bulldogs need to upgrade up front, and it may start with taking snaps away from a known commodity like Stackhouse in favor of unproven talent like Jordan Hall, who will be entering his true sophomore season and recorded eight pressures in his 177 snaps last year.