Leonard Floyd

Leonard Cornilus Floyd (born September 8, 1992) is an American football defensive end for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL).

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.

He played college football at Georgia 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.

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.

He made his professional regular season debut and first career start in the Bears' season-opener against the Houston Texans and recorded six combined tackles and was credited with a half a sack on Brock Osweiler during their 23–14 loss.

In Week 4, he left the Bears' 17–14 victory over the Detroit Lions after suffering a calf injury.

The calf injury sidelined him for the next two games (Weeks 5–6).

On October 20, 2016, Floyd recorded three combined tackles, sacked Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers twice, forced the first fumble of his career, and recorded the first defensive touchdown and fumble recovery of his career in the Bears 26–10 loss.

During a Week 11 matchup against the Giants, he collected two combined tackles, but left the 22–16 loss in the fourth quarter after colliding with teammate Akiem Hicks while attempting to tackle running back Rashad Jennings.

During the collision, the crown of his helmet made impact with Hicks and compressed his neck.

He was stretchered off the field and taken immediately to the hospital, but was released later that night.

Floyd suffered a head/neck injury and a concussion and was unable to play the next week against the Tennessee Titans.

On December 4, 2016, he earned four solo tackles, earned a two sacks on San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick, and recorded the first safety of his career, as the Bears routed them 26–6.

On December 24, 2016, Floyd made one solo tackle, but left the Bears' 41–21 loss to the Washington Redskins after suffering a concussion.

The concussion kept him from playing in the Bears' regular season finale against the Minnesota Vikings.

Floyd claimed it took two months to recover fully from the concussion and for all the symptoms to subside.

Floyd finished his rookie season with 7.0 sacks, which placed him third among all rookies.

He finished the 2016 season with 33 combined tackles (23 solo), seven sacks, a forced fumble, fumble recovery, one touchdown, and one safety in 12 games and 12 starts.