The Tar Heels have had a laundry list of graduates from this year’s team announce they will enter their names into the NFL Draft pool. On Friday, another player who concluded his Tar Heel career back on December 27th added his name to that list as we close in on the NFL Draft declaration deadline.
Ed Montilus, who just finished his fifth season in Chapel Hill, announced via social media that he will be pursuing a career in the NFL. He will be represented by the Renaissance Sports Group as they revealed on Saturday.
Montilus played in 61 games in his half decade with the program, starting 41 of them at the left guard spot. He finished with his best season in protection, grading out at a 74.7 mark according to PFF despite allowing two sacks and 23 total pressures. This was a major step forward from 2022, though, where he allowed five sacks and 31 total pressures. Montilus struggled throughout his career in run blocking situations and this year was no different. He finished with a 52.1 grade in run blocking, meaning that he did not finish a single season at the college level with a grade higher than a 59.5 in that area. He also had major issues with penalties throughout his career, racking up a team-high 21 during the last five years, 15 of which came in the last two seasons alone.
As expected, Montilus has nearly no draft stock and will have a similar amount of work to do as his high school teammate William Barnes to make it to the next level. He will need a huge pro day to have any chance of being on a roster later this summer.
Montilus becomes the eleventh Tar Heel player to declare for April’s draft ahead of tomorrow's declaration deadline. Here is a look at all eleven of the players that have made it official that they are pursuing a career in the NFL.
William Barnes
Amari Gainer
Corey Gaynor
Cedric Gray
Tomari Fox
Drew Little
Drake Maye
Ed Montilus
Myles Murphy
Spencer Rolland
Tez Walker