David Edwards (born March 20, 1997) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

for the Los Angeles Rams of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played college football at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

High School career

During high school, Edwards played quarterback for

Downers Grove North High School Downers Grove North High School (Simply often known as DGN) is a public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. Thi ...

. While in high school, he weighed 215 pounds, didn't lift weights, and didn't eat breakfast. Edwards was also a standout basketball player for the Trojans, starting at center for three years on the varsity level. Edwards gained the attention of numerous collegiate scouts, most notably from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

and various

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

schools.

College career

During college, Edwards started eating breakfast and gained 20 pounds in his first six months. By August 2016, Edwards had grown to 275 pounds. After his Sophomore season, Edwards was named to the AFCA First-team All-American. Edwards considered declaring for the 2018 NFL draft, but eventually decided against it. One factor that swayed Edwards was a talk with Wisconsin alumnus and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

player Joe Thomas, who told Edwards that he would remember his final year at Wisconsin more than his rookie season in the NFL. Prior to the 2018 season, Edwards was named pre-season second-team All-American by Sporting News,

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

, and the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

. Edwards was also named a first-team All-American by

Athlon Sports Parade Media (previously known as AMG/Parade and Athlon Media Group) is a publisher founded in 1967 that is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville's Spencer Hays was its majority stockholder. It was purchased by The Arena Group in 2022 and now ...

. On January 1, 2019, Edwards announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the 2019 NFL Draft.

Professional career

Edwards was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the fifth round (169th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft. Edwards started in Super Bowl LVI and the Rams went on to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20. Edwards returned as the starting left guard to start the 2022 season. On October 11, 2022, Edwards was placed on injured reserve with a concussion. He was designated to return from injured reserve on November 16, 2022.

References

External links

Wisconsin Badgers bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, David 1997 births Living people American football offensive tackles Los Angeles Rams players Wisconsin Badgers football players People from Downers Grove, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois Sportspeople from DuPage County, Illinois