When you’re a FCS player, chances are slim to none that you will ever get to play in the NFL. But for Fordham’s Stephen Skelton, he doesn’t have to look very far for inspiration.
Skelton’s older brother, John, a quarterback who also graduated from Fordham, was drafted by the Cardinals in the fifth round of last year’s draft. When injuries forced the Cardinals’ first- and second-string quarterbacks to miss the final four games of the season, John Skelton got to start, throwing for two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The younger Skelton, a tight end, he has been impressing scouts, and said he hopes to be drafted this weekend to join his brother in the pros.
“Just watching [John] literally go through the exact same process as me, going to train at the same place for pro day, it’s like I’m just reliving what he just did,” Stephen said. “It helps a lot. He has given me a lot of advice throughout this whole process. Coming from a small school, you don’t get as much hype as those other guys, but at the same time, I’m flying under the radar, which is nice.”
Skelton played in the Texas vs. the Nation game in February, a game that includes seniors with lesser profiles than the major prospects. His performance raised more than a few eyebrows, and around a dozen scouts came to see him work out at Fordham last month as a result of that game.
“I didn’t get to go to the Combine, but I played in the Texas vs. the Nation game and that helped a lot,” he said. “I met with a lot of scouts there and a few GMs, and I thought that was real big for me.”
His best collegiate season came his junior year, when he caught 63 passes for 634 yards and six touchdowns — it certainly helps when your older brother is throwing the ball to you. In his senior season, with John gone, Stephen’s production slipped to 43 receptions and three touchdowns as the Rams used two different sophomores who combined to throw just 10 touchdown passes.
“After my junior year, I had 60-something catches, and I knew I wasn’t going to get as many catches my senior year because of our quarterback situation,” Skelton said.
“So really, that summer, I tried to focus on my blocking to give me an all-around game. To be honest with you, my blocking wasn’t on par my junior year, so I worked on that all summer, and I thought from my junior to senior year it was a world of a difference.”
Stephen Skelton is a projected late-round pick in the draft, which starts tonight and runs through the weekend. He will be watching in New York City at a relative’s house with his family. Skelton is ready for the possibility he does not get drafted at all.
“It’s definitely not in my hands anymore,” he said. “I can’t really do anything right now. But my agent has talked to me about the possibility if I don’t get drafted, we’ll definitely have a large amount of teams wanting me [as a free agent], so I’ll have to make that decision and see where I’ll go.”
One of the teams that scouted him was the Cardinals. What would it mean to get drafted by the same team his brother plays for?
“That would be pretty crazy going from pee-wee football to middle school to high school to college and then to actually doing it in the NFL would be pretty amazing,” Stephen said. “I can’t even imagine how my parents would actually feel about to that. It would be unreal.”
John Skelton’s one-in-a-million shot came true last year. Stephen hopes he can follow in his brother’s footsteps one more time.