I agree with this mostly. It is not GT's fault in itself, the college football landscape is in the middle of it's biggest upheaval in its history. I fear NIL is going to relegate mid to low-teir P5 schools to defacto G-5 status. We are going to become the SC Freiburg of the Bundesliga and see all of our top players poached by the Bayern Munichs of the world with lucrative contracts.
That said, the top schools only have so many roster spots and we can still develop players into NFL talent. There are plenty of top-notch NFL players (Mack, for one) that came from G-5 schools. Not to divert too far off of the thread's topic, but I think some P5 schools will have to debate whether to choose a dramatic change of course and attempt to break the mold to win. I think that running weird, exotic systems in college football with players that are not poached by the larger schools may be the answer. Please don't think this means only CPJ's offense. A derivative of that offense may be an answer, if it survives the continuous rule changes that the NCAA passes, but also air raid offenses that rely on X's and O's instead of superb God-given talent. My fear for GT in this regard is that we pulled the trigger approx. 20 years too soon with the CPJ hire and are now somewhat jaded by it. The CGC is definitely a reaction of sorts to CPJ - they are the opposite of each other in too many respects, we can all admit that.
Back to the draft. I think Carpenter will be our first player drafted and think he will be a late 5th to 6th round pick. Thomas and Cochran will be drafted as well, perhaps in the 7th. Swilling and Quez Jackson will get undrafted deals. In all, regardless of who recruited and who coached them, these young men getting a shot at the NFL is comething to celebrate and we should all be happy for them and not let discussion about their success devolve into the petty bickering that has been going on in every thread on this forum for the past 3 years. I say that knowing full well that I have done more than my fair share of complaining.
Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Bruce Jordan-Swilling give running back a shot in the 2023 XFL. He was a 4-star RB recruit.