Austin Proehl was drafted by the Buffalo Bills. Both the Bills GM and head coach came from the Carolina Panthers, where Ricky Proehl spent a long time as a consultant and wide receivers coach. I hate to say it, but I believe that Buffalo used that 7th round pick to select his son, Austin, as a favor to Ricky, who also played a bit for the Panthers. The fact that the Bills would not even give Austin Proehl a spot on their 10 man practice squad, after a solid pre-season, furthers my suspicion that they drafted Ricky's son as a "favor".
Jets made a similar move a few years back (about 2010?) when obese head coach Rexrod Rhino became absolutely smitten with quarterback Mark Sanchez. The fat cuck even got an ankle tattoo of his wife, only wearing a Sanchez jersey. Anyhow, Sanchez' best friend as a kid was a fringe wide receiver prospect from the University of Colorado named Scotty McKnight. Both Sanchez and Scotty McKnight were sons of L.A. area fire captains, who were also best friends. To make a long story short, the Jets used a 7th round pick on McKnight, but he was so awful, they couldn't even get him on their practice squad. I mean McKnight couldn't get open in the 4th quarter of pre-season games. He just hung around for a year in New York as Sanchez' "roommate".
Now, I think Austin Proehl is better than McKnight ever was, but he was undoubtedly helped by his familial ties. Scotty was a very rare, obviously wasted pick on white receiver who didn't deserve to be drafted. Tragedy is every year there are a lot of white wide outs that deserve to be picked and never are.
