Georgia defensive backs with 'long way to go' to replace NFL-bound Bulldogs

ATHENS, Ga. — The NFL Draft begins a week from tonight, and three Georgia defensive backs are bound to be selected. While destinations of Kamari Lassiter, Javon Bullard and Tykee Smith remain undetermined, one thing is for certain: the Bulldogs have big shoes to fill in the secondary.

Lassiter, Bullard and Smith represent a little bit of everything. You’ve got a cornerback, a STAR and a third who played just about every position on the back end. It means that every defensive back on Georgia’s 2024 roster has an opportunity with an opening at their position. That certainly was one of the biggest storylines to watch during spring practice.

Now with the spring game in the past, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart can spend time assessing what he saw. Based on his comments, he knows the challenge that is replacing the NFL-bound trio and knows that there’s still work to be done.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Smart said after Georgia’s G-Day spring game on Saturday. “We lost three really good football players there. We’re thin. David Daniel wasn’t able to go today, Malaki (Starks) was out, Justyn Rhett was out, Demello (Jones) was dealing with a little bit of a hamstring. We got better in the secondary, but we’re not where we need to be in terms of being able to make plays on the ball down the field and being able to affect the quarterback.”

Not being a finished product coming out of spring is okay. Georgia will have a chance to get guys healthy this summer and hopefully go into fall camp with a full deck of cards. The Bulldogs also have time to hone in on their development. While a guy like Malaki Starks is all but solidified into a starting spot – even without going through spring drills – there’s others including Joenel Aguero, Julian Humphrey, Daniel Harris and JaCorey Thomas that are fighting for playing time still. Freshmen Ellis Robinson and KJ Bolden are also in the mix, as are more veteran options like Dan Jackson.

“Well I don’t know if I’ve seen them attack it. I want to see them attack the ball better,” Smart said about the group as a whole. “We gave up a lot of plays in the spring. What I call 50-50 balls, we didn’t get a lot of them out. What you saw a microcosm of today was a really good quarterback throwing really good touch passes. The throw to Dom, I mean, I’ve seen that 20 times this spring. It’s like, we’re right there. We just couldn’t quite get it out. When you have a good thrower and catcher with people that protect, it’s dangerous. I want to see more out of the secondary. I want to see, yeah, Malaki’s out but that’s okay. There’s other guys out there that have scholarships that can make plays too.”

Daylen Everette, a returning starter in the secondary alongside Starks, was able to acknowledge the excellence in Georgia’s passing game. While it’s not necessarily something that they’re pleased with seeing at practice or in a scrimmage setting like on G-Day – being the ones that are getting beat – the Bulldog defensive backs know they’re getting better because of the tough competition and know few, if any, will pose a bigger challenge than the one they face every day.

“It’s helped us get better, and we’re getting them better,” Everette said. “It’s fun competing with those guys every day.”

“Overall, we’ve just grown,” Everette added. “We understand the defense and what we have to do, what other people have to do. We’re just learning stuff like that … We showed a lot of energy. We made our plays. I feel like we do have a chip on our shoulder because we’re not really talked about as much, but at the end of the day, this school is built on defense and we’ve got to keep that standard up.”

Georgia enters into the summer with 15 total defensive backs on the roster including seven cornerbacks and nine safeties/STARs. The Bulldogs open their 2024 season up with a challenge on August 31st, taking on Clemson in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta.