Georgia football: 5 Dawgs that will be future NFL stars

I cannot quite put my finger on it, but there is something truly different about the redshirt sophomore outside linebacker from my hometown of Marietta, Georgia. Azeez Ojulari may be the best combination of talent and production Georgia has had from a pass-rushing standpoint since I set foot on the University of Georgia campus in August 2008. He is a more refined Leonard Floyd.

On talent and upside alone, Floyd went in the top-10 to the Chicago Bears in the 2016 NFL Draft. While he would have it in spurts, it did not shock me that Floyd did not get the fifth-year option in Chicago and now plays for the Los Angeles Rams. But there were moments he had getting after the quarterback that are the only comparable thing to what I have seen out of Ojulari since 2019.

He is not a 5.5 sacks a year guy and that is it like Jordan Jenkins was, nor are you waiting for that second gear to get there with Lorenzo Carter. Ojulari simply makes the plays that Floyd’s talent would get him to, but his instincts never would. Ojulari could go pro after this season, but if he returns to school for one more season, he could take home some serious hardware as a junior.

From an instinctive standpoint, I find Ojulari comparable to what Richard Lecounte III has in the secondary and what Roquan Smith demonstrated when he took home the Dick Butkus Award in 2017. Ojulari may be a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. I see multiple 10-sack seasons in the NFL in his future. If he is the next Justin Houston, then great job by whoever drafts him.

There are more than just five future NFL stars on his Georgia football roster.

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.