By all accounts, Justin Houston will make a terrific professional football player. Whether his first contract will be worth what it could have been may never be known.
The former Georgia Bulldog was selected early in the third round of the NFL draft Friday night. He went with the 70th pick overall — the sixth of the third round — to the Kansas City Chiefs.
That’s significantly later than what had been initially thought. After strong performances at the scouting combine and Georgia’s Pro Day, he had been projected by many draft analysts to be a late first- or early second-round pick.
But that was before news surfaced that Houston allegedly tested positive for marijuana use at the combine. Fox Sports reported that, citing unnamed sources.
Regardless of the validity of the report, Houston’s stock had fallen in the days before the draft, according to ESPN’s NFL experts. Former Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden called him “the most disappointing guy I studied because he doesn’t play hard every play.”
“First-round talent falls to the third round,” ESPN’s Todd McShay added.
Despite those assessments, Houston was Georgia’s most dominant defensive player last year and had a tremendously productive career for the Bulldogs.
As a junior, the 6-foot-3, 260-pound outside linebacker put up eye-popping pass-pressure numbers: 18.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks and 44 quarterback hurries. He was third on the team as a junior in solo tackles (38) and total tackles (67), but Houston also had two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and an interception.
He started the final 24 games of his career.
Houston could not be reached for comment, and agent Joel Segal did not respond to an email message.
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