Florida football sent seven players to the NFL via the 2025 NFL Draft, and they're shaping up to send another large batch of Gators to the pros in 2026.
Panini released its 2026 Senior Bowl Top 300 list, a catalog of the best potential 2026 NFL Draftees. This year's iteration carries even more weight than usual, as they trimmed the list from 850 players to 300 players.
The Top 300 is here.
— Panini Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) August 20, 2025
The nation’s premier college players. The first step to the NFL Draft begins now.
👉 See who made it: https://t.co/fn1xHdONUa @DFabeSB @PaniniAmerica
Check out the specialists that made the cut here📽️#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE #BestOfTheBest #WherePlayersPlay pic.twitter.com/E1dt38TVyi
Senior Bowl executive Director Drew Fabianich said in a release that their decision to cut the list by nearly 70 percent was to "raise the bar and truly spotlight the top-tier talent across the country."
A more exclusive club than ever, Billy Napier's Gators have five players listed.
Gators 🤝 Senior Bowl Top 300
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) August 20, 2025
🔗 https://t.co/jGBK4B1DEN#GoGators pic.twitter.com/xYhYTAoI1B
Four of Florida's representatives come from the offensive or defensive line -- yet another indicator that the Gators will dominate the line of scrimmage in 2025.
Center Jake Slaughter, who's widely regarded as the top center in college football, and Austin Barber, who started all 13 games at left tackle in 2024, show up for the offensive line.
The obvious names pop up along the defensive front. Tyreak Sapp is back in Gainesville for his final collegiate season and is looking to wreak havoc once again after logging seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss in 2024. Caleb Banks is set to anchor the interior defensive line, and he's been named to the Chuck Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch lists for the upcoming campaign.
Transfer wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant rounds out the list, and is likely the most surprising honoree among the bunch. He caught just 22 passes for 315 yards last season on an underwhelming UCLA team, but he has a strong track record of production. If Sturdivant winds up as an NFL Draftee, that likely means really good things for the Gators' offense, considering the weapons they have around Sturdivant.
And while there's a lot of football left to be played, being a part of this list is typically a good sign. 50 percent of the players selected in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft participated in the Panini Senior Bowl.