Gridiron Heroics partners with Draft Scout to give each school’s Top 5 NFL Draft prospects in the ACC. Welcome to a list of Georgia Tech Top 5 NFL Draft prospects, as seen by Draft Scout.
Each week brings us closer and closer to one of the most anticipated days on the sports calendar — the NFL Draft. This year’s draft will be held in Kansas City, Mo. from April 27-29. Starting today? We take a look at the ACCzzzzzzz seniors, the class of 2023. Since we don’t know yet which underclassmen will declare? We’ll reconfigure the rankings when that happens, so be sure to revisit us.
Our ACC Draft prospect series will run beginning Nov. 7 and will run for the next week, with three schools running per day in alphabetical order. A master conference list of the ACC’s Top 20 NFL draft prospects will wrap things up on Monday, Nov. 14. Please check the team links below frequently so you can check out the other schools’ top prospects as the week progresses. Check out Auburn’s Top 5 Draft prospects here.
ACC TOP 20 PROSPECTS: Overall ACC Top Prospect List
ACC ATLANTIC PROSPECTS: Boston College | Clemson | Florida State | Louisville | N.C. State | Syracuse | Wake Forest
ACC COASTAL PROSPECTS: Duke | Georgia Tech | Miami | North Carolina | Pittsburgh | Virginia | Virginia Tech
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So, we all know that not every team in the country has five surefire draft picks on it. Some programs do, especially in some of the more elite conferences, but the vast majority don’t have that many top-flight prospects. But, we also know that the definition “top-flight” doesn’t always pan out, and at the same time that strong undrafted free agent everybody forgot? He ends up making an NFL and flourishing.
Keion White, Defensive End, Round 4-5
He was named to the “All-Freaks team” by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic this season. He is 6’5 and 286 pounds and has 2 seasons of eligibility remaining at Georgia Tech. This season, he has 40 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and 1 pass defended. NFL Draft analyst for The Athletic, Dane Bruglar, showed a video of White’s versatility, tracking a Virginia running back in coverage step for step down the sideline.
Dylan McDuffie, Running back, 7th round/High Priority Free Agent
Dylan McDuffie has two years of eligibility remaining and is pursuing his MBA at Georgia Tech. A graduate transfer from the University of Buffalo, he played in 29 games over 4 seasons. At Buffalo in 2021, he had a streak of four 100-yard rushing games and finished with 12 TDs (11 rush, 1 receiving).
Malachi Carter, Wide Receiver, High Priority Free Agent
The cliche phrase, “next man up mentality” carries a lot of weight with this football player. He played in 13 games as a freshman at Georgia Tech. He has never seen less than 10 games in action and has been a perennial starter for the Yellow Jackets since 2019. He gets tremendous depth on routes averaging 14.5 yards per catch in 2020, 13.2 in 2021, and 15.6 this season. He had a consecutive start streak in 2021 of 24 games. Any team would be happy to have Malachi Carter in their receiving corp as he would be up to any task and take on any assignment.
Charlie Thomas, Outside Linebacker, High Priority Free Agent
Charlie Thomas is one of the hearts of the Georgia Tech defense. So far this season, he has 86 total tackles, 2 sacks, 2 Forced fumbles, and 2 INT. A natural defender, starting six of the last eight games at Georgia Tech in his freshman year, he is a perennial star. His player bio on Ramblinwreck.com says that in 2020, he had one of his most versatile seasons lining up to play at defensive back, defensive line, and linebacker for the team. He was the East-West Shrine Bowl’s player of the week against Virginia Tech where he had 16 tackles/10 solo and 1 sack.
Ayinde Eley, Inside Linebacker, High Priority Free Agent
This young man has the coolest nickname, “Ace” but it is actually an acronym for the first, middle, and last initials of his name. He represents mental toughness as in High school he had an autoimmune disorder that caused him to spend 1 week in a coma. He had to learn to walk and run again. He played at Maryland and transferred to Georgia Tech with the remaining year of eligibility due to Covid. In 2021 at Georgia Tech, he had 90 tackles. See the rest of his player bio here. He had four games of double-digit tackles so he can find the ball. He is a natural speaker, talking in a press conference about “fighting for the driver’s seat”–a great visual example of competing.