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Come Fan with UsFriday, June 26, 2026

Chad Kelly looks as exhausted as the rest of us by the endless NFL draft

Same.

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The 2017 NFL Draft’s final rounds continued on Saturday, with several prospects still waiting to hear their names picked by teams. One of those was former Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly, who the NFL Network showed during the sixth round. Kelly was slumped over, and looked like he was nearly asleep as he remained undrafted.

This was the last we saw of Kelly from his living room, as his family asked the camera crew to leave after the photo of him slumped over made the rounds on social media.

But good the good news for Kelly is that he was finally drafted with the last pick in the draft, getting picked up by the Denver Broncos in the 7th round, making him this year’s Mr. Irrelevant.

Kelly’s uncle, former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, told the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen earlier on the final day of the draft that he thought his nephew would eventually prove teams wrong for passing on him.

Kelly has had an eventful last few months ahead of the NFL draft, featuring numerous setbacks. In November, his final season was cut short because of a torn ACL. His injury caused him to miss the Senior Bowl. Then in February, Kelly was not invited to the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine, reportedly because of his “off-field issues,” which he has had a few of.

It seems that Kelly’s history of being dismissed from Clemson, allegedly being involved in an altercation with a bar bouncer, running onto the field during a high school football skirmish, and being photographed while rolling a joint has soured his image in the eyes of many NFL scouts. His penchant for drawing stupid headlines, in the context of the NFL Draft’s weird grindhouse, has now apparently barred him from the most important job interview of his life.

Kelly later suffered a wrist injury, which ended his Pro Day after just a few minutes, and he later had surgery on his wrist, setting him back even further.

We’ll see what Kelly’s future holds in Denver.


The weird history of Mr. Irrelevant

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