NFL Draft Day 1: Go to Georgia and Alabama, make money.

“If you want to go and make a crap ton of money in the NFL, come to our school.”

That’s been the pitch of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart to high schoolers since the dawn of time, and once again, it’s worked.

Alabama had No.1 in Bryce Young (Panthers), No.3 in Will Anderson (Texans) and No.12 in Jahmyr Gibbs (Lions), while Georgia’s defense from the 2022 title run continued to roll, with No.9 DT Jalen Carter (Eagles), No.14 OT Broderick Jones (Steelers) and No.30 DE Nolan Smith (Eagles).

The SEC surprisingly didn’t lead the amount of first round talent going on stage this year, with the B1G sending 10 players into Roger Goodell’s arms. The Big 12 had 6, the Pac-12 had 2, and there was one less pick that usual because the Miami Dolphins couldn’t behave themselves (Ohio State also matched Bama and Georgia with 3 players into the first day of the Draft, by the way. The next-highest school was Clemson with 2).

But the SEC also saw the most eyebrow-raising QB of the draft in Anthony Richardson (Florida) taken at No.4 by the Indianapolis Colts. During his time at Florida he was utterly mediocre, completing 53.8% of his passes, throwing for 17 TDs and 9 INTs. Despite the NFL media’s love for his feet and his arm, the surprise for the Colts may be a brutal one. We don’t expect him to start on Year One, and he could flame out a la Colin Kaepernick by Year 4 (because of football reasons not B.S. political ones).

Oh, and Will Levis, who was one of the biggest disappointments of college football this year, sat around the NFL Green Room on Thursday Night, looking more and more mournful as player after player was drafted ahead of him. I could have sworn I saw a massive tear in the once-confident player’s eye.

Sadly for Levis, it turned out that the haters turned out to be right. The excuse that they didn’t understand him isn’t true, they looked at a QB who was a danger from 2 ft, but throwing the ball he could nail someone on the sideline almost as well as his own receiver. The 65.4% completion percentage wasn’t great….the 19:10 TD:INT ratio was pretty damned poor, too (although the INTs actually got better). The media talked themselves into thinking that Levis would be a NFL QB, while the actual NFL people thought markedly differently.

Also in the SEC, Tennessee OT Darnell Wright went No.9 to Chicago and Mississippi State’s CB Emmanuel Forbes went No.16 to Washington.