This is the latest example of why the Georgia Bulldogs are not going away anytime soon under head coach Kirby Smart. Whether it be Eric DeCosta of the Baltimore Ravens, or even Ian Cunningham just down the road with the Atlanta Falcons, one NFL general manager after another loves to rave about the players Smart's program produces. If you want to play in the NFL, a great place to start is at UGA.
What DeCosta had to say at the podium about Georgia players should be in every recruiting pitch.
"Yeah, man. They love football. They're talented, but they love the game. They play hard. It's important to them and they know what it takes to get to the NFL. The acclimation is going to be easier for them because they've essentially been in a program that has a lot of demands on them and is run like an NFL program."
The fact that this came from one of the best talent evaluators in the sport is nothing to take lightly.
These are not recruiting edits or graphics.. These are NFL decision makers talking about UGA players in the NFL.. https://t.co/Y1ndr0xXTv
— Rusty Mansell (@RustyMansell_) February 25, 2026
DeCosta learned from the best in Ozzie Newsome before applying it to this era of Ravens football.
Eric DeCosta loves how Kirby Smart gets his players ready for the NFL
The big key in DeCosta's quote about the Georgia program is that Smart runs it like an NFL program. He may have only spent one year in the NFL as an assistant on one of Nick Saban's Miami Dolphins staffs, but Smart too learned from the best. Saban may be the greatest head coach in college football history, but he was able to achieve that because he brought NFL principles down a level into college.
What is interesting is how much the dynamic has changed over the last decade at Georgia under Smart, when compared to his hall-of-fame predecessor Mark Richt. While Richt was instrumental in helping Georgia re-establish itself as a national program after a down decade in the 1990s, he often let players die ripe on the vine in Athens. There was plenty of juice left to be squeezed out of them.
As for Smart, he lands somewhere in between Richt and Saban in his development process. Saban infamously left no tread on the tires, while Richt would not always put the pieces together. What Smart does is gives his players the tools to be highly successful at the next level. He provides the league with coachable players who are light years ahead of other top draft prospects coming out.
Right now, it may result in more than just CJ Allen and Monroe Freeling being drafted in the top 32.