Ameer Speed, Jaylen Johnson enter transfer portal less than 24 hours after National Championship
Georgia’s 2021 season has been done for less than 24 hours, but the Bulldogs are already starting to see their roster take shape for 2022. Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports has confirmed that cornerback Ameer Speed and wide receiver Jaylen Johnson have entered the transfer portal.
Ameer Speed
Speed, who would be using his sixth year of eligibility from COVID-19, began Georgia’s season as one of the two starting cornerbacks. After the first three, Speed saw his starting spot go to the wayside for redshirt freshman Kelee Ringo. Still, Speed played in 13 of 15 games for Georgia, primarily on special teams, totaling 13 tackles on the season. He tied his career-high number of stops in Georgia’s October win over then-No. 8 Arkansas with three. He also had multiple tackles against Clemson, South Carolina, Missouri and Georgia Tech.
Speed spent five seasons with the program, originally arriving in 2017 by way of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Fla. In total, he played in 48 career games making 25 tackles with one pass deflection.
Speed’s likely departure puts the Georgia secondary in even more of a hole in the secondary where the Bulldogs have been hit hard by turnover in the last couple of seasons. The Bulldogs lost eight players to the NFL Draft or transfer portal after the 2020 season and have several players facing similar decisions now. That includes the likes of Derion Kendrick, Lewis Cine and Christopher Smith, among others.
As a result, Georgia signed five defensive backs including three top-100 ranked cornerbacks and three five-star prospects. Georgia’s top-ranked signee Malaki Starks, listed as an athlete, is likely to play somewhere in the secondary while Jaheim Singletary and Daylen Everette both check in as five-star cornerbacks. Others expected to be on the roster in 2022 include Ringo, who started the final 12 games of the season at cornerback for Georgia, as well as contributors like Dan Jackson, Javon Bullard and Kamari Lassiter. Tykee Smith and Jalen Kimber both missed the majority of the season due to injury while Nyland Green, David Daniel and Lovasea Carroll could be asked to step into larger roles in their second seasons with the program.
Jaylen Johnson
Johnson’s departure is less of headline news given that he was originally a walk-on, however he had earned a scholarship according to him in September of 2021. Johnson, who was in his fourth season with the program, redshirted in 2018 before playing in three games in 2019. In 2020, he saw action in all 10 of Georgia’s games before he played in 12 of 15 in 2021, recording his first career catch in the Bulldogs’ season-opening win over No. 3 Clemson. He had three receptions in the first four games, totaling 29 yards, before not touching the ball again for the rest of the season.
“It’s right now,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said during his champions press conference Tuesday morning when addressing how quick the Bulldogs turn the page to 2022. “We’ll have multiple kids, probably we’ll have a few kids, go into the portal that we’ve had discussions with that held that off, out of respect for the team. I thought that was tremendous. We’ll have that. Everybody will think that’s a terrible thing. But some cases it’s actually a good opportunity for kids.”
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