Leonard Floyd

Leonard Cornilus Floyd (born September 8, 1992) is an American professional football linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft.

Floyd attended Dodge County High School in Eastman, Georgia, where he played football and participated in track. In football, he played defensive end and tight end. Floyd committed to play college football at the University of Georgia in April 2011. After high school, he attended Hargrave Military Academy for a year to take classes that met NCAA requirements.

In track & field, Floyd competed as a thrower. He won the shot put event at the 2011 Region 3AA Meet, recording a career-best throw of 14.96 meters.

As a true freshman in 2013, Floyd started eight of 13 games. He finished the season with 55 tackles and a team-leading 6.5 sacks. Floyd played in 11 games during his sophomore season, finishing the year with 55 tackles, six sacks, and a fumble recovery. In a game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium, Floyd recovered running back Jalen Hurd's fumble and ran it back 96 yards for a touchdown. As a junior in 2015, he played in 13 games with 72 combined tackles, 4.5 sacks, three passes defended, and a fumble recovery. After his junior year, he announced his intentions to enter the 2016 NFL draft.

Floyd received an invitation to the NFL Combine as a top prospect in the upcoming 2016 NFL draft. He attended the combine and performed the majority of combine drills before injuring his hamstring while running the 40-yard dash. He opted not to perform the bench press and was unable to perform the three-cone drill and short shuttle due to his injury. Coincidentally, teammate and fellow linebacker Jordan Jenkins also injured his hamstring and was unable to do the short shuttle and three-cone drill.

On March 16, 2016, he opted to participate at Georgia's pro day and ran drills for representatives from all 32 NFL teams, including head coaches Bill Belichick (New England Patriots), Rex Ryan (Buffalo Bills), Dan Quinn (Atlanta Falcons), and Todd Bowles (New York Jets) and general managers Thomas Dimitroff (Falcons) and Jerry Reese (New York Giants). Floyd added four pounds to his frame prior to his pro day after there were some teams concerns about his thin frame. He performed positional drills, the short shuttle, three-cone drill, and vertical jump. His vertical (35") was four inches shorter than his jump at the combine and Floyd was also unable to do the bench press due to a pectoral injury. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Floyd was a possible top ten pick and a consensus projected first round pick by NFL draft experts and analysts. He was ranked as the second best linebacker/edge rusher in the draft by NFL analyst Mike Mayock, the third best outside linebacker by NFLDraftScout.com, and was ranked the fifth best linebacker in the draft by Sports Illustrated.

The Chicago Bears selected Floyd in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2016 NFL draft. The Bears traded the No. 11 overall pick and a fourth round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in order to move up to No. 9. On May 27, 2016, the Bears signed Floyd to a four-year, $15.78 million contract that includes $15.33 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $9.67 million.

He competed with Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston, Willie Young, and Sam Acho throughout training camp for a job as the starting outside linebacker. He was named the starting left outside linebacker, opposite Willie Young, to begin the regular season.