Eagles WR Nelson Agholor has been a valuable mentor for the Bills sixth-round pick.
Buffalo Bills Inside Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
He calls him his godbrother.
He never played with him on the same youth team. He didn’t go to the same high school or college, and their age difference is almost four years. But if you ask Ray-Ray McCloud if he and Nelson Agholor are blood related, he’ll have a quick response for you.
“We might as well be,” he said.
McCloud first met Agholor when he was 10-years old. A dynamic running back on the youth football circuit in Tampa, McCloud was turning heads all around town.
“We both grew up in Tampa,” said Agholor. “Ray-Ray was like a little league phenom.”
Agholor saw similarities in their games. Both were tailbacks at the time, and both, more often than not, were making a lot of people miss.
A couple of years later, when Agholor was tearing up the high school ranks at Berkeley Prep as a running back, receiver and defensive back, McCloud would go to his games to watch him play.
“He came out to a couple of my high school games when he was deciding where he wanted to go to high school,” Agholor said. “When he got into high school, although there was an age gap, I’d watch him play. We both played tailback at that time. He was a really talented tailback.”
McCloud, who would play at Sickles high school, rolled up almost 2,000 rushing yards his senior season with 17 touchdowns. After a high school career that tallied more than 5,700 yards on the ground, he was a highly recruited college prospect.
Though McCloud had a solid upbringing with parents who taught him responsibility and discipline, the talented tailback had so much in common with Agholor, he simply gravitated toward him.
“In high school when Nelson went to USC, I followed him even more,” said McCloud. “He helped me get ahead of the game and taught me stuff that he didn’t know when he was my age at the time.”
Soon it was McCloud who was getting recruiting letters and phone calls from power five conference schools. He thought of one person to help him with the college recruiting process
“We’d stay in touch all through the time he was getting recruited, especially by USC and the other schools,” said Agholor. “I just took interest in him because I always thought he was a good player, and I was very close to him.”
Dedication to craft
McCloud ultimately chose Clemson, who never really gave the talented tailback a defined role. He spent time as a returner, wide receiver and even defensive back in his time with the Tigers. Receiver and returner wound up being where he lined up most.
Agholor, who also transitioned to receiver at USC again had something in common.
“We kind of played similar roles, tailbacks who ended up playing receiver,” said Agholor. “So I just wanted to make sure he was always polishing his receiver skills. Every chance we got in the offseason whether I was coming home from college, or I was in the league and he was in college we’d just work out, work technique stuff and get on the conditioning tip and things like that.”