Florida only had three players from the 2021 team selected in the 2022 NFL draft, but many in Gator Nation are celebrating the Detroit Lions‘ sixth-round pick, former Gator and Jackson State linebacker [autotag]James Houston IV[/autotag].
Houston signed with Florida as a three-star recruit out of American Heritage in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2017 and promptly sat out his first year with the team due to charges of credit card fraud. He served as a reserve linebacker in all 13 games in 2018 and 2019 before playing just nine during his junior year.
He joined Deion Sanders at Jackson State University for his redshirt senior season and finished tied for second across all FCS teams with 16.5 sacks. Gambling on himself paid for Houston and he became coach Prime Time’s first NFL product as the No. 217 overall pick in the draft.
Interestingly, Houston said that he had no contact with the Lions during his pre-draft preparations. Detroit also took edge rushers Aidan Hutchinson (Michigan) and John Paschal (Kentucky) in the first two rounds, so it’s clear that the front office wanted to load up at the position through the draft.
It’s not technically a Florida player gone pro, but it’ll do in a down year for the Gators to put it kindly. He joins cornerback [autotag]Kaiir Elam[/autotag] (Bills), defensive tackle [autotag]Zachary Carter[/autotag] (Bengals) and [autotag]Dameon Pierce[/autotag] (Texans) as members of the 2020 Gators that went in this year’s draft.
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