GREEN BAY, Wisc. – After three Bulldogs were selected on Thursday night, Georgia has now had at least one first round pick for eight straight years following day one of the 2025 NFL Draft.
DE Mykel Williams went 11th overall to the San Francisco 49ers, LB Jalon Walker was selected 15th by the Atlanta Falcons and DB Malaki Starks was picked 27th by the Baltimore Ravens.
This aforementioned trio helped Georgia compile a 39-4 record during their three seasons as the Bulldogs won a pair of Southeastern Conference titles and the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship. The Bulldogs have now had 20 first round selections with only 19 total losses during the Kirby Smart era that started in 2016.
With three members of the Georgia defense selected, the Bulldogs have had at least one defender selected in the opening round for four of the last five years. Georgia has produced 13 first round selections over the past four seasons, as well as three first round picks for the third time in program history.
Notes on this year’s Bulldogs selected:
• Williams: This marks the fifth consecutive season that the Bulldogs have had one of their frontline defenders taken in the draft.
• Walker: Twenty linebackers from Georgia have been picked since 2010 with seven of those being selected in the first round.
• Starks: Georgia has now had 13 defensive backs selected since 2019 with four of them being selected in the first round.
Williams played in 40 career games, starting 18 of those contests, and had the best year of his time in Athens in 2024. The Coaches SEC Second Team selection had 21 stops, including 8.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, and forced two fumbles in just 12 games. Similar to Walker, the Columbus, Ga., native thrived when the lights were the brightest, recording a pair of sacks against the Longhorns in Austin and then another two versus then No. 2 Texas in the SEC Championship Game victory. Williams had 67 stops, including 21.5 tackles for loss and 14 sacks, in his three seasons for the Bulldogs.
Williams is the fourth Bulldog to be drafted by the 49ers in the 2000s and the third from Kirby Smart’s teams. San Francisco’s last Georgia selection was also a defensive end when Robert Beal Jr. was selected in the fifth round during the 2023 draft.
Walker, a native of Salisbury, N.C., won the 2024 Butkus Award after playing the role as the Bulldogs’ versatile linebacker who played both inside and outside. The 2024 AFCA First Team All-American finished fourth on the team with 60 stops, including a team-leading 10.5 tackles for loss and a team best 6.5 sacks, to go along with a pair of fumble recoveries. Walker wreaked havoc at No. 1 Texas with seven tackles featuring three sacks as Georgia downed the Longhorns in Austin in front of a record-breaking crowd. He finished with 89 stops, 18 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks in 43 games since 2022.
Walker becomes the first Bulldog to be selected in the first round by the Falcons in the organization’s history. He marks the 13th player picked by Atlanta since 1968 and the fourth in the last four years. Walker’s former teammate Zion Logue was selected by the Falcons in the sixth round of last year’s draft.
Starks, who hails from Jefferson, Ga., was Georgia’s team leader in tackles with 77 last season while adding four tackles for loss and an interception. A First Team All-American in both 2023 and 2024, Starks was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award and Coach Wooden Citizenship Cub after jumpstarting the Bulldogs’ 2024 season opener with a pick during Georgia’s 34-3 rout of No. 14 Clemson. Starks played in all 43 games since the 2022 season, starting 42 of them, and racked up 197 tackles and six interceptions.
Starks is only the fourth Bulldog selected by the Ravens all-time after Baltimore selected Musa Smith (2003), DeAngelo Tyson (2012) and Ben Cleveland (2021) in previous drafts.
The NFL Draft continues Friday in Green Bay with rounds 2-3 starting at 7 p.m., followed by the final four rounds beginning Saturday at noon.