Elijah Griffin was not one of the four Georgia Bulldogs named first-team All-SEC in preseason media voting.
But if he plays as well as some think he can, he’ll be a strong candidate to do so at the end of the season.
“Elijah, man, he could be as good as he wants to be,” linebacker Raylen Wilson said at SEC media days. “He’s athletically gifted, strong, big, where he can take on two blockers.”
Griffin did get recognized as one of the top burgeoning talents in the league, as he was chosen second-team All-SEC last week. As a freshman, Griffin finished with 22 tackles, 2½ tackles for loss and a sack.
He’s going to need to improve those numbers if he’s going to stack up with the likes of former Bulldogs Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Christen Miller.
The lack of proven dominance is part of the reason head coach Kirby Smart is hesitant to put too much on the shoulders of the Pooler native.
“His weight room numbers and his combine numbers, whether it’s twitch, movement, acceleration, all these things we measure, he’s comparable to some of the best defensive linemen we’ve had,” Smart said. “But we haven’t seen that on the field yet and, he has only been a freshman. If you think back to those great ones we’ve had, they were not dominant as freshmen.”
Griffin won’t go it alone this year on the defensive line, as the Bulldogs return all but one contributor from the position group a season ago. But the lone departure was Georgia’s most impactful interior lineman. Miller was a second-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in the 2026 NFL draft.
Georgia has plenty of big bodies in the middle of its defense, as it will be able to lean on Xzavier McLeod, Nnamdi Ogboko and a healthy Jordan Hall. All those players have spent multiple seasons in Athens, giving them a strength edge most young defensive linemen can’t match.
Griffin, though, is not like most young defensive linemen. It’s why he was frequently brought up as a breakout candidate at SEC media days.
“I mean, his numbers when he got here were like, OK, wait, he has the highest bench, highest strength, highest quickness of the room,” Smart said. “But now he’s learning how to actually use that, and we want to see a big jump in his play.”
For as much as Smart gushed about Griffin’s physical attributes, the sophomore defensive tackle’s emotional intelligence is perhaps what has the coach most encouraged about what he can ultimately become.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been on the practice field with a kid that smiles every day,” Smart said. “You look at him, and he just lights up and smiles. He’s got a beautiful mom who’s been a single parent raising him for a long time, and he’s an incredibly intelligent kid, articulate kid, and we need him to be a playmaker for us this year. And it just it makes me proud to see his growth.”
It’s easy for Griffin to draw comparisons to Carter, who became the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history this week. Like Griffin, Carter was a role player as a freshman. He didn’t truly start until his third year in the program — though he made plenty of standout plays as a sophomore.
He ended the 2021 campaign with 37 tackles, 8½ tackles for loss and three sacks. Georgia won a national championship that season, something the Bulldogs hope to do again this fall.
If that’s to happen, Griffin will need to turn his potential into proven production.
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