Projected salaries for each Georgia first-round pick in 2023 NFL Draft

The 2023 NFL Draft is off to a roaring start, as expected, for Georgia football. The Bulldogs had three players taken in the first round, tying Alabama and Ohio State for tops in that category.

Jalen Carter was the first UGA player off the board. He went to Philadelphia with the No. 9 overall pick. The Eagles traded up from 10 to get him. Broderick Jones was taken five picks later by Pittsburgh. The Steelers traded up three spots to No. 14 to get the Georgia offensive tackle.

Then there was a long pause, 16 picks to be exact. That’s when the Eagles, with their second pick of the first round, decided to take their fourth UGA player in the past two drafts with the No. 30 overall pick. Nolan Smith is joining Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, and Carter in the City of Brotherly Love.

It’s a massive feather in the cap of Kirby Smart and Georgia football but let’s not lose site of who this impacts the most — the guys who were drafted. They are about to make life-changing money and with the help of spotrac.com, DawgsHQ can tell you about how much they’ll rake in over the next few years of their lives.

Jalen Carter

If the stud defensive tackle had gone in the top five like so many were projecting, his rookie contract would be worth roughly $10 million more than it will be as the No. 9 pick. Still, Carter is projected to make around $21.8 million over the course of his four-year deal.

That figure will include around $12.8 million in guaranteed money, at least. The former five-star prospect’s cap hit in Philly is just under $4 million.

Broderick Jones

Offensive tackle is a deep position in this draft and Jones was the fourth of five selected in the first round. It’s worth noting that Jones got picked No. 14 overall after just 19 starts at the college level. He spent just three years at Georgia with one of those essentially serving as a redshirt year in 2020.

Pittsburgh should love the tread left on those tires as they’ll offer Jones a contract in the neighborhood of $16.6 million. A round $9.1 million of that will be a guaranteed signing bonus and Jones cap hit is a little over $3 million.

Nolan Smith

Another former five-star prospect, Smith had a longer wait than most expected. His stellar NFL Combine showing helped him get drafted in the first round but didn’t result in him being a top 10 or 15 pick. Still, he has to be smiling as he goes to a winner in Philadelphia.

He’s going to pocket quite a bit of change as his rookie deal will be worth up to $12 million. Around $5.7 million of that will be signing bonus and his cap hit will be around $2.2 million.

Don’t break out the calculator because we’ve done that for you. In total, Georgia’s first round picks in the 2023 NFL Draft are projected to make $50.4 million over the next four years with over half of that, roughly $26.7 million, being guaranteed/signing bonus cash.

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