Georgia football: 2024 signees who will make the biggest impact as freshmen

Georgia became known for producing dominant interior defensive linemen with Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, but this season that was a major problem for Kirby’s defense. The Bulldogs’ interior defensive lineman only produced 40 of the team’s 186 QB pressures in 2023. 

Warren Brinson accounted for 17 of those 40 and that could have been his last season in Athens if he opts to head for the NFL. 

That means Georgia desperately needs interior disruptors, and they’ve found one with Jordan Thomas. He isn’t the team's highest-rated interior guy, but he is the most ready to contribute next season. 

Thomas is a legit size-speed combination built for SEC football. He’s very twitchy and explodes off the ball at 6-foot-5 300 pounds. He’ll line up over guards and almost certainly face a lot of interior one-on-ones with the talent Georgia has elsewhere on the defensive line and edges. I expect him to win a lot of one-on-ones as a freshman and make a very real impact for a defense that doesn’t have many difference-makers inside. 

Alabama’s massive offensive line mauled the Georgia defense line in the SEC Championship game, but a guy like Thomas can start to shift the balance of power back to the Bulldogs. 

The other four-star defensive linemen that signed in the 2024 class, Nasir Johnson, Joseph Jonah-Ajonye, and Justin Greene are either run stoppers in the case of Johnson and Greene, or development players who need to add to weight in Jonah-Ajonye’s case. Thomas is the most ready to battle in the trenches as a freshman.