Georgia's leading pass-rusher Nolan Smith's injury may impact his NFL Draft stock

The No. 3 ranked Georgia Bulldogs have hit a major speed bump on the road to defending their College Football Playoff National Championship from last season. Sure, they're still 8-0 and first in the SEC East, but they'll now have to go the rest of the season without their leading pass rusher, Nolan Smith.

The senior linebacker was injured during UGA's 42-20 win over the Florida Gators this past weekend. Not only will he miss the rest of this season with a torn right pectoral muscle, but ESPN is reporting that it's still not clear whether or not Smith will be ready to "fully participate" at the 2023 NFL Combine.

The school announced that Smith will have surgery this Thursday and a full recovery from the injury is expected. The problem for the star pass-rusher is that according to ESPN, the surgery usually takes three to four months to recover from, meaning that he likely won't have time to prepare for the combine, which is scheduled to go on from Feb. 28 through March 6.

How this impacts Smith's NFL Draft stock is still up in the air. On the one hand, it's never "great" to enter the NFL coming off an injury. On the other hand, he has plenty of talent to still justify a late first-or - second-round pick and NFL teams are much more willing to overlook injuries for the sake of talent. Just ask Jameson Williams, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2022 with the No. 12 overall pick despite having suffered an ACL tear just a few months before the draft in the 2022 National Championship Game.

Smith's draft stock may certainly take a hit depending on how he's able to recover, but he does also have his character to fall back on. Just a week ago, UGA head coach Kirby Smart raved about his senior linebacker.

"Nolan is a natural leader," Smart said. "He's been that way since I met him when he was in eighth grade and he came up here to camp. He's been a natural leader. His leadership is more important than his ability, and his ability is pretty strong. He creates a toughness and holds people to a standard of the way you strike blocks, the way you close on counters, the way you rush with effort, special teams, I mean, he plays on all special teams. He's just a core guy."

At 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, Smith finished 2021 with 56 tackles, nine tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks. Before his injury, he was Georgia's leading pass-rusher this season with three sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 16 quarterback hurries.