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Fertile ground: 11 NFL players from Tampa, 10 from Pinellas

 
Clearwater's Jeremiah George and Lakewood's Bernard Reedy, shown in 2009 as the Times' Pinellas County defensive and offensive players of the year, are among 23 players from Tampa Bay high schools to make NFL rosters on the opening weekend of the 2017 season.
Clearwater's Jeremiah George and Lakewood's Bernard Reedy, shown in 2009 as the Times' Pinellas County defensive and offensive players of the year, are among 23 players from Tampa Bay high schools to make NFL rosters on the opening weekend of the 2017 season.
Published Sept. 16, 2017

Each year, the NFL sorts the opening 53-man rosters for all 32 teams to find out which hometowns produce the most NFL talent, and Tampa now has 11 players from their high schools, tying for the seventh-most of any cities across the country.

The NFL counts a player's hometown as the city where his high school is located -- in theory, you could include Riverview grad Jahleel Addae as a 12th player from Tampa, as he lists himself from Tampa on his Twitter bio, but the NFL counts him from Riverview.

South Florida dominates the NFL list -- Miami has 25 players and Fort Lauderdale 15, with Houston ranking second with 17. The only other cities with more NFL players than Tampa are Cincinnati (14) and Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., with 12 each.

Which NFL team has the most locals? The Chargers have four -- Addae, Admiral Farragut's Rayshawn Jenkins, Hillsborough's Nigel Harris and Indian Rock Christian's Sean Culkin. It's cool to see the Bucs have the second-most with three -- Wharton's Vernon Hargreaves, Lakewood's Bernard Reedy and Jesuit's Garrison Sanborn.

Lakewood has the most of any local high school with four players in the NFL -- Reedy, Vikings WR Rodney Adams, Jaguars DE Dante Fowler and Seahawks CB Shaq Griffin. Hillsborough is close behind with three, in Cowboys CB Anthony Brown, Browns LS Charley Hughlett and Harris.

Here are all your locals from 53-man rosters across the league. It doesn't include practice-squad players like St. Petersburgh High's David Jones, who made the Patriots' practice squad as an undrafted rookie out of Richmond, or Armwood's Matt Jones, now on the Colts' practice squad.

TAMPA: Bengals WR Chris Moore (Jefferson), Bills DE Ryan Davis (Blake), Browns LS Charley Hughlett (Hillsborough), Cowboys CB Anthony Brown (Hillsborough), Cowboys OL Chaz Green (Tampa Catholic), Packers P Justin Vogel (Berkeley Prep), Chargers S Jahleel Addae (Riverview), Chargers LB Nigel Harris (Hillsborough), Eagles WR Nelson Agholor (Berkeley Prep), Steelers DE Anthony Chickillo (Alonso), Bucs CB Vernon Hargreaves (Wharton), Bucs LS Garrison Sanborn (Jesuit).

PINELLAS: Bills CB Leonard Johnson (Largo), Bears WR Josh Bellamy (Boca Ciega), Vikings WR Rodney Adams (Lakewood), Colts LB Jeremiah George (Clearwater), Jaguars DE Dante Fowler (Lakewood), Chargers TE Sean Culkin (Indian Rocks Christian), Chargers S Rayshawn Jenkins (Admiral Farragut), Rams TE Tyler Higbee (East Lake), Seahawks CB Shaq Griffin (Lakewood), Bucs WR Bernard Reedy (Lakewood).

HERNANDO: 49ers RB Matt Breida (Nature Coast).

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