Defensive Tackle · Arizona Cardinals
Kaleb Proctor
No. 94 · Rookie
Four years in Hammond, a turned-down portal, and a call the day before his birthday.
Oak Grove, Louisiana has fewer than 2,000 people. Kaleb Proctor is one of eight children who grew up there, the son of Kevin and Sarah Proctor-Perkins, and started playing football and baseball at six years old on fields that most recruiting services never bothered to visit.
He left Oak Grove High School as an all-state linebacker who had helped the football team win two consecutive state championships and the baseball team win back-to-back state titles. Zero stars. Zero FBS offers. Southeastern Louisiana, an FCS program in Hammond, was the first school to hand him a scholarship.
He arrived at SLU as a linebacker and left as a defensive lineman. The position change required weight. The weight required time. He did not crack the starting lineup full-time until his sophomore year. Nobody was hurrying.
Then, before his senior season, the transfer portal opened its arms. FBS programs came calling with NIL money attached. Proctor turned them down. His stated reason, reported at the time, was that the teammates he had come in with would be at his wedding someday. He stayed in Hammond for the full four years.
On April 26, 2026, the Arizona Cardinals selected him in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. He was the first FCS player taken in the entire 2026 draft. After the call came through, he got on with reporters and described that moment in Oak Grove as a beautiful Saturday.
It was the day before his 22nd birthday.
He signed his rookie contract in June 2026. Then he tore his meniscus and landed on injured reserve. His entire first NFL season was over before it started.
The arc here is not a smooth one. A town with no recruiting attention, a program nobody was watching, a portal exit he walked away from, and then a rookie year he never got to play. The Cardinals took a chance on a player who spent four years earning it. The rest is still waiting.
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