NFL could be next stop for McQuaid grad Brian Parker

Brian Parker attended Ralph Wilson Stadium enough times while growing up in Henrietta as a big-time Buffalo Bills fan to know the difference between the good seats and the not-so- good seats.

“My dad used to have season tickets in the Van Miller Club, so I’ve had my fair share of heated seats, which is great,” Parker recalled the other day.

Yes, the creature comforts of luxury seating sure do make those November and December home games in Orchard Park a bit more tolerable. However, Parker would like nothing more than the opportunity to return to the Ralph and be down on that freezing cold sideline as a member of the Bills.

The McQuaid Jesuit and University at Albany graduate is very likely going to get a chance to become an NFL player in the next week or so. The 6-foot-4, 260-pound tight end may get drafted in the later rounds Saturday, and if he doesn’t, he has caught the eye of enough teams during the workout process to procure an undrafted free agent opportunity somewhere, and Buffalo might be the place.

Bills scouts have been to the Albany campus several times to watch Parker practice and play, and the organization — along with the Washington Redskins — put in a special request that allowed Parker to perform his pro day along with University at Buffalo players at the Bills’ training facility in March.

Albany didn’t have a pro day, but Parker was eligible to work out at Buffalo for two reasons — the schools are in the same state, plus, “If an NFL team wants you there, it trumps everything.”

So Parker, already feeling good about that, showed up and did exactly what he’d been doing since the end of Albany’s 2014 season: He turned some heads with his combination of size, speed, and athleticism in the drills.

“I first started seeing scouts coming around last year when they were looking at Kadeem Williams who was a tackle on our team last year,” Parker said. “A couple of them took note of my name, and I went up to them and talked to a couple, and they said, ‘Yeah, we know, we’ll be back next year for you.’ So as I was training for the season last year, my goal was obviously to have a great year and do everything we can at Albany, but in the back of my mind I also knew this was my last season and I needed to do everything I could to stand out.”

He succeeded. Parker caught 39 passes for 500 yards and 5 touchdowns for the Great Danes, earning third-team Colonial Athletic Association honors. Having already achieved his undergraduate degree in sociology before the season began (he worked on his masters to stay eligible to play football in 2014), Parker withdrew from school once the fall semester ended to embark on his journey to the NFL.

He went to the Sport and Speed Institute in Chantilly, Virginia, to train, and while he wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, he did participate in a regional combine in Baltimore. A strong showing there earned him an invitation to the super regional combine in Arizona, and he impressed again.

“The tight end class as a whole isn’t as strong (in the draft) so I think athletically I’ve put myself pretty close to the top,” he said.

Parker consistently benched 220 pounds 25 times, his best 40-yard dash time was 4.55 seconds (on the watch of a Seahawks’ scout), his vertical leap at the Baltimore combine was 39.5 inches, and he did the three-cone agility drill in 7.03 seconds, “So those numbers kind of stuck out for me and put my name on the map,” he said.

What might hold teams back from drafting him, though, is the level of competition he faced in the Football Championship Series (formerly Division 1-AA), but Albany coach Greg Gattuso believes if Parker gets the chance, he’ll excel.

“I think he’s got great potential,” Gattuso recently told The Saratogian. “There’s just not a lot of human beings who can block a defensive end and then run down the field and make the catches he’s capable of. His combine numbers have been outstanding so there’s a few teams that are really on him and I’m glad to see that. He’s a good player.”

Parker received only two partial scholarships (the other was from Bentley University) following his days at McQuaid where he was an All-Greater-Rochester second-team football and basketball player.

“I had walk-on spots at Syracuse, Buffalo, and Pitt, but I wasn’t getting any money, and those were to play defensive end and I wanted to play tight end,” said Parker, whose younger brother, Cory, also played at McQuaid and will be a redshirt sophomore linebacker on the Albany team in the fall.

That proved a wise choice as Parker finished his career with 74 catches for 1,006 yards and 9 TDs, and because of his size and willingness to block, he’ll get a look from someone.

He’s already had private workouts for the Eagles and Chargers, and he had visits with the Bengals and Chiefs. For now, his work is done and he’s back at the home of his parents, Scot and Elva, in Henrietta where he will watch the draft and hope his phone rings.

“I’ve been taking things step by step and I’ve had so much to do that I haven’t actually been thinking about the draft because I’ve had these visits and workouts and combines, but there’s nothing left ahead of me now except for the draft so it’s more of a reality,” Parker said.

So, what about playing for the Bills?

“Obviously at this point I wouldn’t mind where I went, but it would be great if I got picked by the Bills, close to home, very easy transition to play for a team I’ve been a fan of my whole life,” he said. “It’s been my dream to play in the NFL, but if I could play for the Bills that would be really cool.”

MAIORANA@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/@salmaiorana

NFL draft

When: April 30 through May 2.

Where: Chicago.

Format: First round begins at 8 p.m. Thursday. Second and third rounds are conducted Friday beginning at 7 p.m. Selections for rounds four through seven start at noon on Saturday.

TV: NFL Network will broadcast all seven rounds. ESPN will televise rounds one, four, five, six and seven. ESPN2 will televise rounds two and three.

Buffalo Bills picks: Second round (50th overall); third (81); fifth (155); sixth (188, 194); seventh (234).