Georgia opened spring practice Monday with the largest returning starter group Kirby Smart has coached since arriving in Athens. The Bulldogs have 16 players back who started at least eight games in 2025, which is an unusual volume of continuity at a program that routinely sends players to the NFL Draft after their junior seasons.

That continuity is deliberate. Smart made a decision in the offseason to prioritize retention through the portal and NIL rather than use the spring to integrate a heavy transfer class. The result is a roster that looks like a roster — not a collection of pieces still figuring out how to coexist — and a spring practice schedule that can focus on refinement rather than installation.

Quarterback Carson Beck returns for his senior season having played through significant shoulder discomfort in the 2025 stretch run. How he looks physically in March will be the most scrutinized development of Georgia's spring. The program's medical staff has been quietly optimistic, and Beck himself has not expressed public doubt about his readiness. What scouts will be watching: arm strength on deep balls, willingness to step into throws under pressure, and any mechanical compensation that might signal residual discomfort.

The position group generating the most internal competition is wide receiver. Georgia lost two starters to the NFL — both left after their junior seasons — and the receivers who step into those roles will have chances to prove themselves against the returning secondary, which is one of the best in the country. Spring competition between offensive and defensive players of this caliber is genuinely useful evaluation.

The spring game is scheduled for April 19. Georgia's spring practices are not open to the media except for the designated open periods, so most of what we learn before April will come from Smart's press conferences, which are informative when he wants them to be and carefully managed when he doesn't.