The Cincinnati Bengals made receiver A.J. Green the first Dawg to be picked in the 2011 NFL Draft after selecting him in the opening round with the fourth overall pick on Thursday night.
Green, a 6-4, 212-pound native of Summerville, South Carolina, was selected to the 2010 Walter Camp All-America Second Team and to the Pro Football Weekly All-American Team after leading the team with 57 catches for 848 yards and nine touchdowns last season. The Biletnikoff Award semifinalist finished his three-year career with 2,619 yards receiving with 23 scores in just 32 games played.
Rennie Curran was the first Dawg chosen in the 2010 draft after he went in the third round. Green joins Matthew Stafford (2009 – No. 1 pick) and Knowshon Moreno (2009 – No. 12) as the three first round picks over the last three seasons.
Geno Atkins was taken 120th overall in the fourth round of last year’s draft, marking the last time the Bengals selected a Dawg. In the 2005 draft, Cincinnati drafted David Pollack as the 17th overall pick in the first round.
The Atlanta Falcons made an effort to trade into position to get Green but could not close the deal and settled for Julio Jones with the 6th pick.
Linebackers Justin Houston and Akeem Dent were selected in the third round of the NFL Draft on Friday. Houston was taken with the 70th overall pick by the Kansas City Chiefs, while the Atlanta Falcons picked Dent with the 91st selection.
A native of Statesboro, Ga., Houston was a finalist for the 2010 Butkus and Nagurski awards as the team’s third leading tackler. He also was second in the SEC with 10 sacks (.77 average) as a junior last season. For his career, Houston recorded 125 total tackles, 20 sacks and 38 tackles for loss. His 20 sacks ranks seventh in the Georgia record book. He is the first Dawg to be drafted by the Chiefs.
Dent, a native of Douglass, Ga., led the Dawgs with 126 tackles as a senior in 2010 and was voted to the All-SEC Second Team. He started all 13 games for Georgia and was the team’s leading tackler nine times. Dent had at least 10 tackles in seven games and finished the season ranked second in the SEC with 9.7 tackles per game. He is the eighth Dawg to be drafted by the Falcons and the first since Thomas Brown in 2008.
