Running back Miles Sanders' mother Marlene (photo above) has been with her son every step of the way as well, especially when it came to his decision to forgo his senior season at Penn State to declare for the NFL Draft.

Marlene gave her blessing, but only under the condition that Miles eventually go back to Penn State to finish his studies and earn his degree.

"You did a lot for me and look where I am now," Miles said about his mother. "I'm living my dream because of you. Thank you, mom."

Wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside's mother, Valorie Whiteside, passed her athletic genes down to her son as she was a professional basketball player, but it came with a lot of traveling along the way.

Arcega-Whiteside was a multi-sports star growing up, lettering in both basketball and track and field in high school. What that meant for Valorie was traveling from one end of the country to the other to see her son participate in basketball tournaments, baseball games, and track and field events.

"Thank you for all of the sacrifices you made – driving me all over the country for AAU tournaments, standing outside in the heat and sweating while I played football, baseball, soccer, whatever sport it was," the second-round pick said.

Quarterback Clayton Thorson is one of five children his mother Shauna had to wrangle, which needless to say, came with its unique share of challenges.

"Thank you for all you've done for me and all of our siblings in our ever-growing family," he said.

The old cliché is that it takes a village to raise a child, and there is no better personification of that saying than professional football players. Whether it's transporting them back and forth to practice, traveling across time zones to see them play in person, or providing encouraging words during a setback, there are so many people involved in getting these young men to the highest level of the profession.