Five Georgia players will be among top NFL Draft prospects with the Senior Bowl week of practices kicking off on Tuesday morning.

There will be hundreds of NFL personnel on hand, notably head coaches and general managers, to assess the players as they compete in individual, group and team drills at the University of South Alabama.

The Senior Bowl has seen at least 100 of its participants drafted in each of the past four drafts, and last year’s Senior Bowl produced a record 110 drafted players — including 10 first-round picks and 45 of the Top 100, including Ladd McConkey, Javon Bullard and Tykee Smith.

“Last year’s rosters were great, we didn’t get a ton of buy-in from the juniors, all of those first-round picks were seniors,” said Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, noting that the first year juniors were eligible to play in the Senior Bowl didn’t produce optimal results.

“But we have a bunch of juniors in this class here that could go in the first round.”

Nagy took time with DawgNation for an exclusive interview on Monday morning to give the rundown on the five Bulldogs players who will be competing.

Nagy’s words carry great weight in NFL circles, to the extent he was recently interviewed for the New York Jets general manager position.

Nagy was an NFL scout for 18 years and was a part of six Super Bowl winning teams, including four Super Bowl winners working for the likes of Mike Holmgren, Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick.

SENIOR BOWL BULLDOGS

TREVOR ETIENNE

“We didn’t think he was coming out. We have really close communication with the Georgia staff, and he was a guy they thought they were getting back.

So we went full at running back and didn’t have a spot for him, so then he declares, and when you’ve got a chance to get a player like Trevor Etienne you create a spot, so we went over our number at running back to get him.

We’re excited, I think he’s one of the most dynamic running backs in this year’s draft, he’s a true three-down back, he’s really good in the pass game. Those guys always show well down here in Mobile, because it’s a space week, and the league is a space league. So we put them in a lot of drills where they get those linebackers and safeties out in space trying to cover them.

Like any running back, I think pass protection is the biggest thing. You don’t see a lot of that in college, so it’s seeing the toughness and willingness. The technique can come, they can get taught technique, but the NFL teams will be looking for that willingness to collision people in pass protection and hold up.”

ARIAN SMITH

“You can clean-up the hands, that’s something that I’ve been a part of on a lot of teams, where we’ve drafted receivers that maybe weren’t the most natural catchers. You get on a jugs machine and you can cure a lot of that stuff.

What you can’t do, is you can’t teach a guy to run 10.1 (seconds) in the 100 meters. Arian is going to be the fastest guy in this year’s draft, he’s going to go to the NFL Combine and blow that out.

He and I spoke yesterday (Sunday) at registration, and I told him, your speed is going to feel a lot different to these scouts and evaluators in person than on tape. A lot of scouts went through Athens this year, of course, there’s a ton of foot traffic through Athens but it’s not the head coaches and GMs, it’s not the guys making the draft picks.

So he’ll be able to make an impact, his speed is going to look different on the field.”

DAN JACKSON

“He’’s just a really good player, I don’t understand why people discount this guy. I was at the Georgia spring game last year and I feel like he was all over the place. He forced fumbles, and fumble recoveries, made an interception. I mean, he’s got instincts, he’s got closing burst, he’s physical and there’s so much to like.

I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about this guy. Yes, he was a walk-on, yes he’s a white safety, you can pigeon-hole him all you want, but if you watch the football player, he’s a Dog.

We had Tykee Smith at the Senior Bowl last year and he probably benefitted from the game more than anybody, going into the game most guys had him as a fifth or a sixth-round draft pick and he goes in the third round. As soon as we invited Dan, (Tykee) texted me, he said he loved playing with the guy, so he’s a great teammate really good player, he’s going to have a good week last year.”

TYRION-INGRAM-DAWKINS

“He’s a high upside player, like you said, if you grade the flashes you get really excited about him. He’s a guy we went back and forth with talking to the Georgia staff.

I think he was vacillating if he was going to come out or stay in — we push these guys to go back to school. We’re not trying to take them, we’ll try to get them when they come out. We’re not ever pushing these guys to come out as juniors.

But he has a great body type, he’s really versatile, and you see a lot of disruptive playmaking ability, from him, it should be a big week for him.”

SMAEL MONDON

“He was playing his best football late. He’s extremely intelligent, it was just the (foot) injury thing, he just needs to stay healthy, because he’s really athletic, the coverage will be great.

Taking to Glenn Schumann and those guys, if there was a guy on that roster that was able to cover Brock Bowers in practice over the last few years it was Smael Mondon. This is another guy that the week sets up really well for.

Georgia Players Who Scratched

Two Georgia players, offensive guard Tate Ratledge and center Jared Wilson both scratched, as Nagy explained.

“Jared miss-stepped in a drill on Saturday, literally 24 hours before getting on a plane, which is unfortunate, they were working a wide zone drill, they said he stepped wrong and hurt his foot, and it’s unfortunate,” Nagy said.

“Yes, (Wilson) is the number 1 center in the draft, but that can still be a third or a fourth-round draft pick…. that’s a position teams like to wait on. It’s a bummer for Jared, I know he was excited to be coming here.”

Ratledge’s reasons for withdrawing were unknown to Nagy, but the Senior Bowl executive director noted how players with great intangibles and leadership skills — like Ratledge — benefit greatly from the exposure.

“I’ll say this, (missing) hurt Sed Van Pran a lot, he was projected to be a third-round pick and everyone loved his intangibles, and his leadership,” Nagy said of the Buffalo Bills fifth-round pick, who scratched last year.

“That’s something that comes across when they’re down here on the field with the NFL GMs and head coaches, that’s stuff they are looking for.”