Three former Georgia high school football players – Eric Berry (Creekside of Fairburn), Demaryius Thomas (West Laurens of Dublin) and Kareem Jackson (Westside of Macon) – were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft last week. 
Eric Berry, Creekside
MaxPreps file photo by Tracey Long
That’s the fourth time in history that Georgia has had as many as three players go in the first round. The record for the state is four, set in 2007, when Ronnie Brown (Cartersville), Thomas Davis (Randolph-Clay), Carlos Rogers (Butler of Augusta) and David Pollack (Shiloh of Snellville) were taken.
Overall, 15 Georgia players were drafted (compared to 13 last year). Two of the 15, Jermaine Cunningham and Perry Riley, were teammates at Stephenson High in Stone Mountain. Neither was considered the best defensive player on his high school team at the time.
Unlike last season, when lightly recruited Sherrod Martin of Griffin was the first Georgia player picked, most of this year’s draftees were pretty solid recruits coming out of high school. Eric Berry of Creekview, Chris Scott of Lovejoy and Jonathan Dwyer of Kell were Parade All-Americans, and Reshad Jones of Washington was the No. 1-rated safety in the country, according to one recruiting service.
Eight of the 15 come from high schools that had never graduated a future NFL player. Here’s a look at the 15 and their high school careers:
S Eric Berry, Creekside (Fairburn) (first round, No. 5 overall, Chiefs): Berry was primarily a quarterback in high school, and he had over 1,000 yards both rushing and passing for an 11-1 team as a senior in 2006, when he was the state’s all-classification player of the year and rated the No. 1 cornerback prospect by four recruiting services. Berry went on to an All-America career at Tennessee. He will be the first Creekview player to play in the NFL.
CB Kareem Jackson, Westside (Macon) (R1, No. 20, Texans): Jackson was a marginal prospect coming out of Westside of Macon in 2006, partly due to academic issues. He never made higher than honorable mention all-state as a running back despite rushing for 1,436 yards as a senior in only 10 games. Jackson spent a season and Fork Union Military Academy and emerged as a top prospect then. He started 40 games in three seasons at Alabama. His time of 4.48 in the 40 at an NFL Combine helped propel him into the first round. Westside, Macon's top program since it opened in 1997, had never had an NFL player.
WR Demaryius Thomas, West Laurens (Dublin) (R1, No. 22, Broncos): Thomas caught 56 passes as a senior at West Laurens and made first-team all-state in Class AA. Not considered that fast for a receiver, he was only a three-star recruit but with ACC and SEC offers. Most recruiting experts rated him between No. 20 and No. 50 in the state. At Georgia Tech, Thomas had over 1,000 yards receiving last season despite playing in one of the most run-oriented programs in the country. He made first-team All-ACC. Thomas will be the first player from West Laurens, a middle Georgia school that hasn’t won a playoff game since 1994, to play in the NFL.
DT Torell Troup, Salem (Conyers) (R2, No. 41, Bills): Troup was the star defensive lineman for Salem’s 2004 semifinal team that lost to Statesboro in the Georgia Dome. He went by the name of Torell Johnson (his mother’s name) in high school and his first two seasons at Central Florida, where he started for three seasons. Though Troup signed with a mid-major school, he was a respected prospect, generally rated among the top 50 recruits in Georgia. Troup will become the first player from Salem (and second from a Rockdale County school) to play in the NFL.
DE Jermaine Cunningham, Stephenson (Stone Mountain) (R2, No. 53, Patriots): Cunningham, one of five major Division I-A recruits from Stephenson’s powerful 2005 team that made the Class AAAAA semifinals, was a blue-chip recruit, but not the top prospect on his high school team. That was linebacker Marcus Ball, now at Memphis. Cunningham had an All-SEC career at Florida.
S Morgan Burnett, North Clayton (College Park) (R3, No. 71 overall, Packers): In high school, Burnett was a brilliant two-way player who had had over 100 tackles and 1,000 yards rushing and another 650 passing. Burnett was an All-ACC player at Georgia Tech.
LB Rennie Curran, Brookwood (R3, No. 97 overall, Titans): Curran was the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s Class AAAAA defensive player of the year in 2006 and rated the top linebacker recruit in Georgia. As a junior, he led Brookwood to the Class AAAAA title game. Curran was considered one of the state’s top 15 prospects, but it is probably a surprise that he would be a third-round draft pick after only three seasons at Georgia, where he started for two-and-a-half seasons.
LB Perry Riley, Stephenson (R4, No. 103, Redskins): Riley was a solid three-star recruit as a senior, but three of his Stephenson teammates got at least one first-team all-state honor while Riley did not. Two of them – Marcus Ball and Kelvin Shepherd – were linebackers like Riley. The third all-state teammate was Cunningham (above). Riley was a two-year starter at LSU and was the defensive MVP of the Chick-fil-A Bowl victory over Georgia Tech in 2008.
CB Trevard Lindley, Hiram (R4, No. 105, Eagles): Due to a knee injury, Lindley played only three games as a senior at Hiram, a Douglas County school that opened in 2000 and hadn’t won a playoff game until 2009. He was a two-star prospect, according to two recruiting evaluators. Lindley chose Kentucky over North Carolina and Southern Miss. He was All-SEC first team in 2008 and was slowed by an ankle sprain as a senior last year. Hiram had never had an NFL player.
LB Eric Norwood, North Cobb (Kennesaw) (R4, No. 124, Panthers): Norwood was a three-star recruit as a senior in 2005, but he failed to make first-team all-state, as his team finished 1-9 in his senior season. Several Southern powers, including Georgia, did not recruit him. Norwood wound up at All-American at South Carolina and three-time first-team All-SEC. North Cobb, a school that’s over 50 years old, had never had an NFL player.
DE/LB Cameron Sheffield, Portal (R5, #142, Chiefs): Sheffield was a first-team all-state player in 2005 and member of Portal's only team in history to win a state-playoff game. But Portal is a Class A school, making Sheffield the only Georgia draftee this year from the state's smallest classification, and Sheffield was a mid-major prospect at best coming out of high school, with Troy being one of the few Division I-A schools to offer him a scholarship. He was a three-year starter at Troy and two-time All-Sun Belt Conference player.
OL Chris Scott, Lovejoy (R5, No. 151, Steelers): Scott was a Parade All-American in high school for his season of 2004 and made first-team all-state and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Super 11 team. He was rated among the top 10 linemen in the country by two recruiting services out of high shool. At Tennessee, Scott started his final three seasons and was second-team All-SEC as a senior. Lovejoy has never had an NFL player.
S Reshad Jones, Washington (Atlanta) (R5, No. 163, Dolphins): Two recruiting services rated Jones the No. 1 safety prospect in the nation for the 2006 signing year. A raw talent who needing developing, Jones redshirted as a freshman and started two seasons at Georgia and made some second- and third-team All-SEC teams.
RB Jonathan Dwyer, Kell (Marietta) (R6, No. 188, Steelers): Dwyer was a Parade All-American as a senior in high school at Kell in Marietta, where he set the Cobb County record for rushing yards in a career with 5,565. The only other Georgia player to get that honor in 2006 was Berry. Dwyer was ranked among the top 15 running backs nationally by most recruiting services, although typically second in the state to the University of Georgia’s Caleb King. At Georgia Tech, Dwyer rushed for 1,395 yards in each of his final two seasons and was the ACC’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2008. Kell had never had an NFL player.
DL Chris McCoy, Villa Rica (R7, No. 212, Dolphins): McCoy didn’t begin playing football until he was a junior and was perhaps a better basketball player in high school. He went to Middle Tennessee, where he became the Sun Belt Conference co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 as a senior. McCoy was rated a two-star recruit by two recruiting services.
