Seven players from seven different South Florida high schools picked in 2022 NFL Draft
It was a relatively quiet weekend for South Florida in the 2022 NFL Draft, but the region still had a first-round pick, a trio of second-round selections, and seven total players drafted across the three days and seven rounds.
Players from Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County all landed in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft, and the seven players came from seven different high schools. Broward led the way with four players, followed by Miami-Dade with two.
Round 1, Pick 23: CB Kaiir Elam, Florida (Benjamin) → Bills
Elam, the son of former NFL safety Abram Elam, followed in the footsteps of uncle Matt Elam as a first-round pick Thursday. The cornerback was the lone South Floridian picked in Round 1 and gave the Florida Gators a first-round pick in 17 of the last 19 Drafts. Elam was the No. 48 prospect overall in the Class of 2019 while playing in North Palm Beach, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. He had 29 tackles, 1 1/2 tackle for loss, five passes defended and one interception last season, and finishes his career in Gainesville with five picks.
Round 2, Pick 50: WR Tyquan Thornton, Baylor (Booker T. Washington) → Patriots
Thornton ran the fastest 40-yard dash time of any wide receiver at the NFL Scouting Combine and it boosted him all the way into the second round of the 2022 Draft. The 4.28-second time wasn’t all there was to the wideout, though: He also had nearly 1,000 receiving yards for the Baylor Bears last season, catching 62 passes for 948 yards and 10 touchdows in his final season in Waco, Texas.
Round 2, Pick 63: RB James Cook, Georgia (Miami Central) → Bills
The Buffalo Bills will have another South Florida running back competing for a starting job after taking Cook with one of the penultimate pick of the second round Friday. Cook will join Delray Beach American Heritage’s Devin Singletary and Hallandale’s Zack Moss in the position group in Western New York, and, as a second round pick, he should have a chance to win a starting job. Cook, who actually finished high school at Northwestern, is the younger brother of Minnesota Vikings star Dalvin Cook and helped the Georgia Bulldogs win the national championship last season by rushing for 728 yards and seven touchdowns on 113 carries, and adding 27 catches for 284 yards and four touchdowns.
Round 2, Pick 64: OLB Nik Bonitto, Oklahoma (St. Thomas Aquinas) → Broncos
Bonitto helped the Raiders win back-to-back state championships when he was playing in Fort Lauderdale, then he earned all-conference and All-America recognition with the Oklahoma Sooners by piling up 39 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, seven sacks, a pass defended, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries last season. He was also the Miami Herald’s Male Athlete of the Year for Broward County as a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Round 6, Pick 217: OLB James Houston IV, FCS Jackson State (Plantation American Heritage) → Lions
After spending three seasons as a rotational edge rusher for the Gators, Houston transferred and blossomed into a star with the FCS Jackson State Tigers. In his lone season in Mississippi, Houston exploded 24 1/2 tackles for loss and 16 1/2 after Jackson State coach Deion Sanders moved him from linebacker to defensive end. Houston was also a state champion as a senior at American Heritage in 2016, although he missed the entire season with an injury.
Round 7, Pick 232: CB Faion Hicks, Wisconsin (Flanagan) → Broncos
Hicks solidified himself as a legend in high school when he ran for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to help the Falcons clinch a state championship in 2015. With the Wisconsin Badgers, he moved to defense full-time and turned himself into an NFL prospect after arriving on campus as a three-star prospect. He had 108 tackles, one interception and 19 defended passes in his Wisconsin career.
Round 7, Pick 234: DT Jonathan Ford, Miami (Dillard) → Packers
Ford extended the MIami Hurricanes’ Draft streak to 48 years when the Green Bay Packers selected him in the final round. Although he never put up eye-popping numbers at Miami, Ford possesses rare size at 6-foot-5 and 338 pounds, and it made him an NFL prospect despite recording just a half a tackle for loss as a senior last year.
