Sports Page Atlanta

The Ted Hendricks award is named in honor of University of Miami three-time Collegiate All-American and NFL Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks, and given to the nations best defensive end each season.

It was just announced that Georgia Tech senior, Michael Johnson is on the short list of 36 players named to the watch list for this award.

Offensive tackle Andrew Gardner was the only Tech offensive player to be named and on the defensive a pair of defensive linemen were honored, Michael Johnson and Vance Walker.

Gardner and Walker were previously named to the 2007 All-ACC team.

The people at College Football News have made their list of their top 250 2009 possible NFL draft picks. Of course they are not predicting who goes where because it mostly depends which teams got slotted where, and they realize just because you are eligible it doesn’t mean you will enter the draft, but overall they do a very good job. They break it down by rounds and by positions.

Among the local players in the top-50 are Georgia Bulldog running back Knowshon Moreno ranked 8th, quarterback Matthew Stafford ranked 13th and at #44 is defensive tackle Jeffrey Owens. For the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets they have defensive end Michael Johnson ranked #11th and defensive tackle Vance Walker at number 21. More Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets are mentioned later on.

Check out the complete projected 2009 NFL Draft list.