After breakout year at Jackson State, Heritage’s James Houston heads to Lions in Draft
James Houston spent four tumultuous years for the Florida Gators before finding a home with the FCS Jackson State Tigers. Now Houston heading to the NFL after breaking out at Jackson State in 2021.
Houston, who graduated from Plantation American Heritage, is heading to the Detroit Lions with the 39th pick in the sixth round — No. 216 overall — of the 2022 NFL Draft on Sunday. He continues American Heritage’s recent tradition of NFL Draft success and managed to get there despite spending four seasons as a reserve — or worse — in Gainesville.
Houston’s Florida career started with a suspension and then led to three seasons as a rotational edge rusher, chipping with 11 1/2 tackles for loss and 4 1/2 sacks in his three years in the Southeastern Conference. At the FCS level, he became a terror and helped give the Tigers the subdivision’s most dangerous pass rush.
Houston exploded for 24 1/2 tackles for loss and 16 1/2 sacks in his lone season in Mississippi, with coach Deion Sanders moving him from from linebacker to defensive end because he saw some similarities to Micah Parsons, who won an NFL Rookie of the Year Award for the Dallas Cowboys last season after he made the same sort of switch while playing for the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Houston’s size is a limitation — he’s just 6-foot and 244 pounds — but his versatility is a selling point with the possibility to play either defensive end or linebacker in the NFL.
He also was a different type of athlete than most of his FCS competition. Houston was a three-star recruit, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and SEC prospect and won a state championship as a senior while playing for former coach Patrick Surtain, although a knee injury kept him out for the season.
Houston is the 10th American Heritage graduate to be drafted since 2017, and the championship team he was part of was historically good. In the 2021 NFL Draft, the Patriots set a record — for a school other than Bradenton IMG Academy — by having six players selected and most of them were part of American Heritage’s 2016 title team.
