{"id":173553,"date":"2025-07-01T17:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/173553\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:58:10","slug":"one-georgia-bulldog-selected-in-first-round-of-2026-nfl-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/173553\/","title":{"rendered":"One Georgia Bulldog selected in first-round of 2026 NFL mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, the NFL Draft has turned into three days of free advertising for Georgia<\/a>\u2018s recruiting staff. Since 2020, the Bulldogs have had 55 players drafted, the most of any college program in that period. That includes 16 first-round picks.<\/p>\n

While the 2026 NFL Draft is still 10 months away, Georgia already looks set to have at least one more Bulldog go on Day 1. Per ESPN\u2019s Matt Miller, who just released his latest first-round mock draft, junior inside linebacker CJ Allen<\/a> is worthy of hearing his name called in the first round.<\/p>\n

Miller projects Allen to go off the board with the No. 26 overall pick to the Los Angeles Chargers. That is the pick after Allen\u2019s former Georgia teammate and now Penn State cornerback AJ Harris<\/a> is selected by the Washington Commanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re watching film, a player jumps out as a perfect fit for an NFL scheme or coach. That\u2019s what Allen is with Jim Harbaugh, as the 6-foot-1, 235-pounder fits the mold of linebackers that Harbaugh had with the 49ers and what he recruited at Michigan,\u201d Miller writes<\/a>. \u201cAllen crashes rushing lanes with power while showing the agility to excel in pass coverage. He\u2019s protected by Georgia\u2019s top-tier defensive line, but Allen\u2019s read-and-react ability makes him a good bet to be an immediate NFL starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

If projected draft status is anything to go by, Allen could find himself in the running to win the Butkus Award, an honor that his former teammate and now Atlanta Falcons rookie Jalon Walker<\/a> just captured this past season.<\/p>\n

Miller has Allen projected as the second-best linebacker in the draft class; Texas\u2019s Anthony Hill<\/a> is the only linebacker who is predicted to be drafted higher. <\/p>\n

As a true sophomore, Allen played in all 14 games this past season. He finished second on the team in tackles with 76, three of those for loss, with one interception, and four passes defended. After breaking out as a true freshman following an injury to Jamon Dumas-Johnson<\/a>, last season was Allen\u2019s first as a first-time starter on Georgia\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

As a freshman, Allen started in five of his 14 appearances. He totaled 41 tackles, three for a loss, a sack, and two passes defended.<\/p>\n

If Allen can continue to make the strides he showed from his freshman to sophomore year, then finishing as a finalist for the Butkus Award could be a legitimate expectation for his junior season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past few years, the NFL Draft has turned into three days of free advertising for Georgia\u2018s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32203,7,450,802,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-173553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-cj-allen","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-georgia-bulldogs","11":"tag-georgia-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114779278873966175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}