There is a lot of buzz around James Proche, the Ravens sixth round pick. Here are three reasons why:
1. He could be the diamond in the rough:
The Baltimore Ravens may have found a diamond in the rough with James Proche. He’s a sixth round pick who is getting much more buzz than any Ravens sixth round pick in recent memory. There is a reason for the buzz, it didn’t just come from nowhere. There were 35 wide receivers drafted this year. It’s not a huge outlier, but that was the most receivers drafted in the past decade.
It was considered the most exciting wide receiver draft class in recent memory, one that could prove to be one of the most prolific groups ever. Seven receivers were taken in the first round and the first pick of the second round was Tee Higgins, a wide receiver from Clemson. The second round had seven receivers selected. Another 15 receivers were drafted in front of Proche.
It was a wide receiver crazy draft. With so many teams addressing the wide receiver position early, there were a lot of good receivers who got drafted later than they should have. That’s where the excitement for Proche comes in. It’s quite possible that Proche would have been drafted before the sixth round in a different year. When you watch the tape, he doesn’t look like a sixth round pick. You almost have to wonder what got him passed up by so many teams, right? Was it his lack of height or the fact that SMU isn’t exactly a College Football powerhouse?
There have been underdog stories in the sixth round. New England Patriots fans will never let you forget that Tom Brady was a sixth round pick (yet they fail to realize that means their team passed on him five times). A more applicable example is Antonio Brown. Like Proche, Brown was an undersized receiver with great production, out of a small school. Could Proche be the next sixth round standout? It’s a question worth asking.