Edwards, Abdullah Taken in NFL Draft

April 17, 1999

CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson’s Antwan Edwards was taken in the first round of the NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers, while teammate Rahim Abdullah was selected in the second round by the Cleveland Browns. Both players were taken within the first 50 picks of the draft.

Edwards was the 25th selection of the entire draft and his selection marked the third straight year a Clemson defensive player had been taken in the first round. In the 1998 draft, Clemson’s Anthony Simmons was the 15th pick of the first round by the Seattle Seahawks. In 1997, Trevor Pryce was the 28th pick of the first round by the Denver Broncos.

Clemson is the only school in the nation to have a defensive player taken in the first round three consecutive years. It was the seventh time in the last eight years a Clemson defensive player was taken within the first 50 selections of the draft.

Edwards is the 19th first-round pick in Clemson history, the third defensive back. Edwards joins Terry Kinard, who was taken as the 10th pick in the first round of the 1983 draft by the New York Giants, and Donnell Woolford, the 11th pick by the Chicago Bears in the 1989 draft.

Edwards is the second Clemson player in history to be taken in the first round by the Green Bay Packers. They took Wayne Simmons as their first pick in 1993. Overall, Edwards is the ninth player in Clemson history to be taken by the Packers.

Abdullah was the 45th selection of the entire draft and the third player taken by the Browns. He is the first defensive player from Clemson taken by the Browns since that franchise selected Michael Dean Perry as the 50th pick in 1988.

Abdullah is the ninth Clemson linebacker in the decade of the 1990s to be taken within the first five rounds of the NFL draft.