If you want a reason why so many are high on Georgia for next season, you got it over the weekend.  No player from the team which finished #2 in the nation was selected before the 5th round of the NFL draft.  That news tells us that there’s a ton of proven talent coming back, and Georgia shouldn’t be absent from the draft’s first day for very long.  It might be sooner than we like if Stafford or Moreno have the kind of season we hope they do.

It’s a quirk of the draft that it’s often better to go undrafted than to be taken in the later rounds.  Both scenarios mean that your spot on the team is far from guaranteed, but a free agent has the chance to select a situation which might be a little better fit.  Take the example of Brandon Coutu.  It’s great that he was drafted, but he’s brought into a situation where he will be the decided underdog competing for a roster spot against NFL veteran Olindo Mare. 

If there was a Bulldog-related surprise, it was Fernando Velasco’s absence from the draft board.  We expect he’ll sign as a free agent very soon, but he was projected to be drafted before Adams.

Drafted Dawgs:

• DE Marcus Howard:  Indianapolis Colts (5th round)
  Quotable:   “I think I’ll be able to help the Colts rush the passer,” Howard said. “They have a couple of guys just like me, probably just a tad bit bigger. I think I’m going to come in, help them rush the passer and help them on special teams.  Just watching those guys play the past three or four years, I’ve seen the defensive ends that they use. It’s pretty much the same Tampa 2 (defense) we got here at UGA. I think I’m going to come in and help the team out.”
• RB Thomas Brown:  Atlanta Falcons (6th round)
  Quotable:  “I really worked hard to appeal to them that I’m not injury prone. If you go back and look at the two injuries I had, the one was a knee injury on a kickoff return where I feel like anybody could’ve torn their ACL on that play. The second one was a crack in my collar bone when I dove into the end zone. But I had full recovery from all of those and I’m just excited about being a Falcon.”
• OL Chester Adams:  Chicago Bears (7th round)
  Though he played tackle out of necessity for Georgia as a senior, Adams “projects as a guard with the Bears.”
• K Brandon Coutu:  Seattle Seahawks (7th round)
  Quotable:  “The respect that Seattle had to go ahead and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to draft him in the seventh round,’ means a lot to me and I’m just going to work a little harder to hopefully take advantage of the opportunity I have.”

Free agent signings:

• Safety Kelin Johnson:  Seattle Seahawks
• LB Brandon Miller:  Atlanta Falcons
• OL Fernando Velasco: Tennessee Titans
• RB Kregg Lumpkin: Green Bay Packers
• WR Sean Bailey: Kansas City Chiefs