Justin
Shaffer.
Justin
Shaffer.
Georgia· 6'4"· 314 lb· 5.14s 40
Shaffer is a 6-foot-4, 314-pound left guard built for the downhill run game Georgia played on its way to a national title. He is a people-mover at the point of attack, with real grip strength and a wide base that makes him hard to walk backward once he is set.
In pass protection he is a wall rather than a mirror. He sets shallow, takes on power well and rarely loses a rep to a bull rush, but a 4.85 short shuttle and an 8.09 three-cone tell the truth about his lateral quickness. Interior rushers with a quick inside counter get to his edge, and he plays with high pads when he has to move in space. He is at his best when the play is decided in a phone booth and someone else handles the movement blocks.
A gap and duo run scheme that lets him fire off downhill into a defender lined up over him rather than asking him to reach or climb.
Year 1: swing interior backup and short-yardage package. Ceiling: starting guard on a power-run team.
An outside zone offense that asks guards to reach the play-side shoulder and then cut off a scraping linebacker.
His body of work is a man-blocking résumé in a league that kept drifting toward zone.
Justin Shaffer highlights — 2022 NFL Draft
The team's own draft reel of his final season at left guard.
Georgia Offensive Line vs Clemson (2021)
All-22 of the opener, one of five games he played every offensive snap.
How the overlooked offensive lineman turned himself into a 2022 NFL Draft pick
Background on the five-year path from reserve to national champion starter.
Shaffer grew up in Ellenwood, Georgia and played at Cedar Grove High School, where he was a three-star recruit committed to Louisville before flipping to Georgia just before signing day. He is a first cousin of DeAngelo Malone, who Atlanta also drafted in 2022.
He waited a long time for his turn. He played eight games as a reserve in 2017 and twelve more in 2018 without starting. His first career start came at left guard in the 2019 win at Tennessee, where he played every offensive snap, and he started again against South Carolina before a neck injury ended his year after six games. In 2020 he started the first nine games at left guard and moved to right guard for the Peach Bowl, earning third-team All-SEC recognition from Phil Steele.
The extra COVID year gave him the season that made him a draft pick. He started all fifteen games at left guard on the 2021 national championship team, played 88 percent of the offense's snaps — second only to center Sedrick Van Pran — and took every possible rep against Clemson, Kentucky, Florida, Michigan and Alabama. Associated Press and the coaches both put him on the second-team All-SEC roster. The evaluation was clear: an experienced, powerful, tight-hipped guard whose scheme fit was narrow. Atlanta spent pick 190 on the profile.
- 01
Power at the point
he generates real displacement on down blocks and duo, which is how Georgia's run game finished drives in 2021.
- 02
Grip strength and anchor
23 bench press repetitions plus heavy hands, and interior bull rushers rarely collapsed his pocket.
- 03
Snap volume
88 percent of Georgia's offensive snaps on a national title team, including every play in five games against ranked opponents.
- 04
Experience
five years in the program with 27 career starts at both guard spots, so nothing about SEC pass protection surprised him.
- 05
Toughness
he came back from the 2019 neck injury that ended his junior season and never missed a start after that.
- 01
Lateral quickness
a 4.85 short shuttle and 8.09 three-cone are poor for the position and show up when he has to redirect.
- 02
Second-level blocking
he struggles to hit a moving linebacker in space, which caps him in any zone-heavy run scheme.
- 03
Pad level in motion
he rises out of his stance when he pulls or climbs, and the leverage advantage disappears with it.
- 04
Positional ceiling
guard only, with 33 1/4-inch arms and stiff hips that rule out any emergency work at tackle.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.14sp50
- Vertical
- 25.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 107inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Georgia | 8 |
| 2018 | Georgia | 12 |
| 2019 | Georgia | 6 |
| 2020 | Georgia | 10 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 15 |
| Career | — | 51 |
Offensive linemen have no statistical line at cfbstats, so games and starts come from the official Georgia biography season by season: eight reserve games in 2017, twelve in 2018, six games with his first two starts in 2019 before a neck injury, the first nine games plus the Peach Bowl as a starter in 2020, and all fifteen starts at left guard on the 2021 national championship team. The seasons sum exactly to the career line of 51 games and 27 starts. No blocking or grading numbers are included because none are published by an official source.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Backup interior lineman who bounces between rosters and fills in for stretches.
Mid-round power guard who develops into a multi-year starter and earns a second contract.
Strong, tight-hipped guard who never converts college power into an NFL role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The NFL never gave him a regular-season snap. Atlanta waived him on August 30, 2022 and brought him back to the practice squad, then signed him to a reserve/future contract on January 9, 2023. The second year followed the same script exactly: waived on August 29, 2023, re-signed to the practice squad, reserve/future deal on January 10, 2024.
The Falcons released him on March 28, 2024. He signed with the San Antonio Brahmas of the United Football League on October 21, 2024 and was released on March 20, 2025, before ever playing a spring game for them either. Two years on an NFL roster, zero games played, and the reason was the one scouts flagged in April: a guard who can only win in a phone booth has to be exceptional there, and against professional interior linemen he was merely solid. The national championship ring is still his, and the pro career never started. He was 27 by the time the Brahmas let him go, which in practical terms is the end of the road for a guard with no professional snaps on his record.