If you needed more evidence of the talent that the state of Georgia produces on the football field, here it is.
USA Football provided a breakdown of where this year’s NFL draft picks went to high school. No surprise, the Peach State stacked up pretty good.
Georgia ranked second in most NFL players drafted in 2011 per capita (one NFL player per 509,876 people) behind only Mississippi.
In this year’s NFL draft, Georgia ranked fourth in players selected with 19, trailing California’s 42, Florida’s 36 and Texas’ 29. North Carolina and Ohio had 10 each. Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Missouri led all states with three first-round picks.
I went back and looked at where the players drafted from Georgia were ranked in Rivals.com’s rankings. From what I found, 13 of the 19 NFL draft picks were three star prospects or lower. That includes five players that were given no stars.
The 19 players from Georgia that were drafted in 2011:
Position Name NFL team Rd. drafted College High School Rivals.com ranking
DE Allen Bailey Kansas City 3rd Miami McIntosh County Academy (Darien)—4 star
G Clint Boling Cincinnati 4th Georgia Chattahoochee (Alpharetta)-3 star
OT James Carpenter Seattle 1st Alabama Hephzibah-4 star out of Coffeyville C.C.
OT Johnny Culbreath Detroit 7th South Carolina State Monroe Area (Monroe)-no stars
LB Akeem Dent Atlanta 3rd Georgia Frederick Douglass (Atlanta)—4 star
WR Kris Durham Seattle 4th Georgia Calhoun-3 star
WR Dwayne Harris Dallas 6th East Carolina Tucker-3 star
DE Cameron Heyward Pittsburgh 1st Ohio State Peachtree Ridge (Suwanee)—4 star
LB Justin Houston Kansas City 3rd Georgia Statesboro-4 star
O G Maurice Hurt Washington 7th Florida Baldwin (Milledgeville)-3 star
DT Frank Kearse Miami 7th Alabama A&M Savannah—no stars
DB Mark LeGree Seattle 5th Appalachian State Pacelli (Columbus)—no stars
DE Bruce Miller San Francisco 7th Central Florida Woodstock-2 star
QB Cam Newton Carolina 1st Auburn Westlake (Atlanta)–5 star
OG Will Rackley Jacksonville 3rd Lehigh Riverdale–no stars
DB Da’Norris Searcy Buffalo 4th North Carolina Towers (Decatur)-2 star
LB Kelvin Sheppard Buffalo 3rd LSU Stephenson (Dekalb County)-3 star
DB Buster Skrine Cleveland 5th Chattanooga Etowah (Woodstock)-no stars
QB T.J. Yates Houston 5th North Carolina Alan C. Pope (Marietta)-2 star
–Please follow me at Twitter.com/marcweiszer
