An anticlimactic NFL Draft for the Gators concluded on Saturday. UF only had three players selected, the program’s fewest since they only had two players taken in the 2012 draft.
There are several explanations for the lighter-than-usual draft class. First, the 2021 Gators obviously weren’t very good, finishing with a 6-7 record and getting their coaching staff fired. Good players on bad teams sometimes don’t get the recognition that they deserve. Perhaps guys like Malik Davis and Jeremiah Moon would’ve been drafted if the Gators had been in the national spotlight more often as a team.
Then there’s the fact that they had eight players taken in the 2021 draft, which left last year’s team younger and more inexperienced than usual, especially on offense.