DFW high schools lead way in producing NFL draft picks

Football is king in Texas, and Texas is king in football.

Lone Star State high schools produced more picks in last week’s NFL Draft than those from any other state in the country. Thirty-two of the 253 players selected, more than 12 percent, hail from the talent-rich state of Texas.

California, the most populous state with 39.14 million people — about 12 million more than Texas — was third with 26 draft picks. Florida, the third-most populous state topping 20 million, gave Texas a good run with 30 draft picks.

No other state produced more than Georgia’s 15, an impressive haul considering the Peach State’s population of 10.21 million. Ohio finished fifth with 14 draft picks, and Illinois was the sixth and final state to produce double-digit draft picks with 10.

Texas remains a hotbed for football talent, which is why Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made it a point to include a stop on his 2015 Summer Swarm satellite camp tour in Grand Prairie. This summer, with the NCAA rescinding a short-lived ban on satellite camps, Harbaugh will swoop into the state a bit to the south in Art Briles’ backyard of Waco, knocking a little more than hour off the drive for talent coming north from the Houston area.

Probably not a bad idea. The greater Houston area produced nine 2016 draft picks, more than 43 states. However, it couldn’t match the 14 players to come out of Dallas-Fort Worth high schools, a seven-seven split between Tarrant County and Dallas area schools.

Mansfield produced three selections, including two from Legacy High School — Josh Doctson, the Washington Redskins’ first-round pick and a TCU record-setting receiver, and Rees Odhiambo, a third-round selection by the Seattle Seahawks via Boise State.

Mansfield High’s Hassan Ridgeway used a solid junior season at Texas to land with the Indianapolis Colts in the fourth round.

 

Arlington Bowie’s Kolby Listenbee, another standout TCU receiver, went to the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round, and Keller Central’s Zack Sanchez, an Oklahoma cornerback, went to the Carolina Panthers with the second pick in the fifth round.

Fort Worth Arlington Heights’ A’Shawn Robinson, a defensive lineman, was a second-round selection by the Detroit Lions via Alabama, and Haltom’s Halapoulivaati Vaitai, an offensive lineman from TCU, was drafted in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Baylor star receiver Corey Coleman, a Richardson Pearce product, was the highest-drafted DFW player, going to the Cleveland Browns with the 15th pick.

Coleman will be joined in Cleveland, where former Bears Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III signed this off-season, by Baylor teammate and decorated left tackle Spencer Drango, whom Cleveland took in the fifth round.

Drango, from Cedar Park just west of Round Rock, was one of nine Texans selected who are not from the Houston or Dallas-Fort Worth area.

This story was originally published May 8, 2016 at 3:40 PM with the headline "DFW high schools lead way in producing NFL draft picks."