Aaron Murray criticizes Georgia's past receiving units, spotlights tight ends for 2022

Aaron Murray is quite familiar with the history of the Georgia receiving room. A quarterback for the Bulldogs from 2009-13, Murray had the luxury of weapons such as future NFL Pro Bowler AJ Green and third-round pick Chris Conley.

But now covering college football for the SEC Network, Murray has noticed a lack of star power from Georgia receivers in recent seasons. He joined ESPN’s “Always College Football” with Greg McElroy on Monday, where he talked the importance of making explosive plays in today’s game.

“I think this is the best group I’ve seen Georgia have in the past few years,” McElroy said. “My biggest issue with Georgia offense when everyone wants to focus on the quarterback and focus on Stetson is we’ve been very average (at receiver). What did LSU have a couple years ago? What did Alabama have? These teams that are winning national championships. Elite receiving play. Guys that can take a bubble, guys that can take a slant, make a couple guys miss and all of a sudden it’s a 67-yard touchdown.

“It’s not that easy to methodically move the ball down the field and feel like you’re gonna be able to score 30-40 points. In today’s game in order to win, you need explosive plays. You need YAC. Georgia has really lacked that star player.”

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Georgia’s leading pass catcher from a year ago was not a receiver, but instead freshman tight end Brock Bowers (56 catches, 882 yards, 13 touchdowns). Jermaine Burton was the true receiver who finished with the most yards (497), but transferred to Alabama this offseason.

The Bulldogs do return their next two leading receivers in Ladd McConkey and Adonai Mitchell, both of whom are expected to take big steps forward in 2022. Aaron Murray said he also expects the tight end group, which features former five-star recruit Arik Gilbert in addition to Bowers, to once again play a big part in the Georgia passing game this season.

“Burton last year was somebody who was supposed to be really good, but he was banged up for the majority of the year,” Murray said. “Obviously now that he’s moved on to Alabama, it’s kind of finding who that next player is. I really like Ladd McConkey. I think he’s a utility receiver. You can put him in the slot, he can play outside and has elite speed. Mitchell, we saw him come into his own toward the end of the season last year. Made some big plays in the playoffs. He looks the part. If you go to practice and you look at AD Mitchell, you’re like, ‘Man, that guy looks like an elite receiver.’ So I’m really excited about him. Kearis Jackson has been great when healthy.

“Then the tight end room is probably the best tight end room that I’ve seen in a long, long time. Brock Bowers, elite guy. Matchup nightmare. (Arik) Gilbert, talking to people inside that building, he is focused, determined and super excited about this offense and new opportunity to go out there and show himself. Then Darnell Washington, 6’7″, 6’8″ matchup nightmare as well, so you’re gonna see a lot of shifting of personnel groups at Georgia this year. You’re gonna see some 12-personnel, some 13-personnel. You may even see some 14-personnel because they’ve got three or fours tight ends that are extremely talented and matchup nightmares for a secondary. To me, this is the best group of receivers and tight ends I’ve seen Georgia have in some time.”

With quarterback Stetson Bennett also back from last year’s national title team, the Bulldogs will hope their passing attack can be much more explosive in 2022. Georgia is set to kick off the 2022 season on Sept. 3 against Oregon.