James Proche Works to Seize Opportunity

Whatever James Proche II does between now and training camp, working on his craft will be a major part of it.

Proche is always grinding, always striving to improve. He has been that way since he joined the Ravens – the first wide receiver on the field for practice, the player most likely to spend the longest time catching passes from the Jugs machine.

“I just love football,” Proche said. “I love my job. I love what I do. This is my nine-to-five, plus some overtime.Some people are at desks and cubicles or whatever they want to do. Salute to you all, but I need to play football. That’s not going to change. I’m super grateful, I’m super blessed. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything [else] in the world right now.”

This season marks Proche’s greatest opportunity to earn regular snaps, one of the young wide receivers being relied upon to emerge after the trade that sent Marquise Brown to the Cardinals. After playing just 3% percent of the offensive snaps as a rookie in 2020, Proche played 21% of the snaps last season and envisions having a much larger role in 2022.

Proche was a workhorse wide receiver at SMU with 93 catches as a junior and 111 catches as a senior. But in the NFL, Proche has 17 catches in two seasons, and while he’s a team player, he admits not seeing more action has been frustrating.

“Yes, it would be frustrating for anybody just because you want to play,” Proche said. “That’s why you work hard, to play. But, like the best thing that I’ve ever heard in my life is, ‘Control what you can control.’ It almost makes me feel invincible at a point, just because God has a plan for me – it’s already out there. I just have to keep walking in those steps, keep working, keep my head down and just keep grinding. Control what I can control.”