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ESPN suggests trading offensive lineman Cade Mays for more pass rushing help
When it comes to professional sports, fans love the idea of making trades. At the moment, the two biggest stories in both the NFL and NBA revolve around when Antonio Brown and Anthony Davis get traded. With that in mind, ESPN’s Edward Aschoff came up with an idea of how some of the elite teams in college football could be made better through trades.
Georgia was one of the teams mentioned, as Aschoff has Georgia trading with Ohio State. The Bulldogs would be giving up sophomore offensive lineman Cade Mays and receive defensive end Tyreke Smith.
“Georgia needs a pass-rusher, and Ohio State needs a monster offensive lineman,” Aschoff wrote. “Both schools have plenty of depth where the other needs help. These guys have a ton of potential and would be immediate impacts for their new teams in 2019. Smith played sparingly last season, but people around the program think he’s a budding star on the outside.”
In theory, trading for a pass rusher makes some sense. Georgia ranked 95th in the country in tackles for loss in 2018. But acquiring yet another highly-rated but unproven pass rusher might not be the solution that the Bulldogs need. Georgia has a number of highly-rated pass rushers that is has brought in the last two recruiting cycles. Brenton Cox and Adam Anderson were in the same recruiting class as Smith, and both players were higher-rated as recruits. Cox and Anderson were also more productive than Smith, who didn’t register a sack in the 12 games he appeared in during the 2018 season.
Georgia also landed the No. 1 player in the country in edge rusher Nolan Smith and brought the No. 1 JUCO player in the country in outside linebacker Jermaine Johnson.
Not to mention that Mays has already proven he can play. He may not have a guaranteed starting spot on Georgia’s 2019 offensive line, but he didn’t last either and still started seven games for the Bulldogs. Mays can also play both guard and tackle for Georgia, and his versatility is a huge asset for an offensive line that saw a number of injuries in 2018.
If there were a pass-rusher that Georgia might consider giving up Mays or other pieces for, it should actually be Ohio State defensive end Chase Young. Last season, Young racked up 9.5 sacks for the Buckeyes, and emerged as one of the nation’s toughest pass rushers. Georgia would probably have to give up a little bit more than just Mays to land the rising junior, but Young would actually be worth giving up a piece as valuable as Mays.
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