One of Georgia’s top 2022 signees will not be able to practice with the team this spring as he recovers from shoulder surgery. Marvin Jones Jr. is expected to miss all of spring drills after having surgery, according to a report from Jake Rowe of DawgsHQ.
Jones signed as a 5-star player in the 2022 signing class. He is expected to take on a larger role for Georgia’s outside linebackers this fall after the Bulldogs saw Nolan Smith and Robert Beal depart for the NFL.
As a freshman, Jones was limited in the number of snaps he saw for Georgia. He played with a shoulder brace on his right shoulder for the entire season and missed the game against LSU due to an ankle injury. He finished the year with four tackles and 1.0 sack.
Georgia does bring back Chaz Chambliss at the position, as the junior is the most experienced member of the Georgia outside linebacker position. Redshirt freshmen Darris Smith and CJ Madden will look to play more snaps this spring as Jones recovers. Georgia also used Jalon Walker often as an outside linebacker, even though he also reps as an inside linebacker for the Bulldogs.
Georgia did see MJ Sherman transfer to Nebraska this offseason, further impacting the depth numbers at the outside linebacker position.
The Bulldogs signed three outside linebackers in the 2023 signing class, with Damon Wilson, Samuel M’Pemba and Gabe Harris all enrolling early at Georgia. The trio will go through spring drills, something Jones did not do last offseason. Wilson, like Jones, was a 5-star prospect and the expectation is that he is the closest to competing from a developmental standpoint.
An offseason surgery is far from a rarity at Georgia, as Nakobe Dean and Brock Bowers are recent examples of players who had shoulder/labrum surgeries in the offseason only to return in the fall and play at an extremely high level.
Georgia has not yet announced a spring practice start date, though the expectation is that it will be March 14. The G-Day game is set for April 15, though a time has not yet been announced for when the annual spring scrimmage will start.
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