Brothers-
Something just dawned on me… J Johnson, M Willis, J Williams, and K Walker off the tope of my head would not be projected top #1-45 overall picks without the portal. Nor would J Burrow and others in recent years…
We are giving J Johnson the benefit of watching a whole year production with 80% of the snap share. We have T Walker and J Davis both south of 50% and they are being penalized a bit for their lack of production. Jordan Davis highlights are surreal for a man of his size, and yet it’s questioned whether he has top 5 overall value as a “pure run stuffer?” Is he though? Couldn’t the guy tracking down SEC RBs on toss sweeps rush the passer if he was asked to? At the very least if 2/5 of the entire offensive line was 100% dedicated to stopping him from collapsing the line of scrimmage, doesn’t that mean the other 3 guys are left to block 2 edge rushers and 2 DEs?
I think Georgia was a well oiled machine, and each guy played the snaps they were asked, and performed the duty that was required, and they won.
Don’t tell me if Quay Walker would have entered the portal at 6’4" and 245 with 4.5 speed and jump out gym springs, that he wouldn’t have put up elite MLB numbers?
Blaming the GA defenders for their stats is like blaming a RB who only have 150 carries for falling short of 1,000 yards?
We see what Jameson Williams, Burrow, J Johnson, K Walker etc did with a full time shot ,and we see why they made the move… Others did now.
Makes you wonder what kind of numbers Olave may have put up without JSN and Wilson demanding so many targets.
Conversely you have guys like T Burks who balled out despite the whole world knowing it was going to him. He was doubled constantly.
Bottom line- I think a lot of guys had dominant seasons that weren’t even the draft radar 7 months ago, and the portal gave them time to shine. Now we have to figure out the aftermath. Is J Johnson better or worse than T Walker? He couldn’t beat Walker out in GA so he left, but once he left he sure outproduced him?
Lots of stuff to unpack.