Former Bills offensive tackle Stew Barber died June 11, the team announced Sunday. He was three days shy of his 87th birthday.
Barber played on the Bills’ AFL title teams in 1964 and 1965 and was a five-time AFL all-star in his nine seasons.
After earning All-America honors at Penn State as a two-way tackle, Barber was a fourth-round pick of the Bills in the 1961 AFL draft. The Cowboys selected him in the third round of the NFL draft.
He signed with the Bills.
Barber played outside linebacker as a rookie and intercepted three passes, with one returned for a touchdown. He moved to offensive tackle after the season, serving as Jack Kemp’s blindside protector.
Barber was All-AFL first team in 1963 and 1964 and second team in 1966. He also was named to the second-team AFL All-Time Team.
He missed only one game in his career, which ended after the 1969 season.
After his playing career, Barber transitioned to college scouting serving in Buffalo’s personnel department. He rose through the ranks to assistant General Manager and vice president. Barber’s front office time with the Bills ended in 1983.
Barber retired to South Carolina.
The Bills have taken care of some important business as they conclude their offseason program.
Buffalo announced on Friday that the club has signed first-round pick Maxwell Hairston and fourth-round pick Deone Walker to their rookie contracts.
Hairston, a cornerback, was the No. 30 overall pick out of Kentucky after being named a 2024 second-team All-SEC honoree.
The Bills selected Walker, a defensive tackle, with the No. 109 overall pick out of Kentucky. He was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2023 and a second-team All-SEC selection in 2024.
Buffalo now has only one unsigned draft pick — second-round defensive tackle T.J. Sanders.
Bills first-round pick Maxwell Hairston’s first NFL offseason ended with an injury.
Hairston had to leave Wednesday’s practice early and the cornerback did not take part in Thursday’s minicamp finale at all.
General Manager Brandon Beane said, via multiple reporters, that Hairston suffered a hamstring injury. He got treatment while the rest of the team was practicing and Beane said that the expectation is that Hairston will be fine for training camp this summer.
The Bills drafted Hairston with the 30th overall pick in April. He was a two-year starter at Kentucky and joins Christian Benford, Taron Johnson, Tre’Davious White, Dane Jackson, Cam Lewis, and sixth-round pick Dorian Strong on the cornerback depth chart in Buffalo.
Back in late January, Bills General Manager Brandon Beane admitted the club “probably was a little disappointed” in receiver Keon Coleman’s performance after he returned from injury midway through his rookie season.
While Coleman — a second-round pick in 2024 — ended his first season with 29 receptions for 556 yards and four touchdowns, he had just two multi-catch performances once he came back from a wrist injury in Week 15. One of those games came in Week 18 with Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, with Coleman making two receptions on 10 targets for 31 yards. He then had three catches for 22 yards in three postseason games.
In a Wednesday minicamp press conference, Coleman was plenty self-critical about his rookie season and how he views the tape of his first pro season.
“You want to know exactly what I see? Man, that shit trash — you’ve got to be better,” Coleman said. “It’s simple as that. You’ve got to be more efficient here. You’ve got to get out of this break. You’ve got to stack your DB. You’ve got to give Josh more room to throw the ball. You’ve got to catch that. You’ve got to make that block. You’ve got to give that extra effort on the touchdown block, so if Jimbo [James Cook] breaks it, he’s up the sideline.
“Just different things like that — calling out everything you’re doing wrong to make it right.”
Coleman doesn’t seem to find it difficult to be self-critical, saying that he approaches it as calling a spade a spade.
“It ain’t no, ‘Aw, that was trash. Well, I did do this right.’ Nah,” Coleman said. “It’s either a plus or a minus, and that’s just how you go about it.”
Coleman said he’s spent the offseason training to get bigger, faster, and stronger as he wants to play more physical. But even as he’s critical of his rookie season, he said he doesn’t get frustrated when watching it.
“I don’t really get frustrated. I don’t really need motivation,” Coleman said. “I’m self-motivated. I come here every day to work. This is a job, but to me it’s more — it’s a hobby and a profession. So, it’s something I love to do and I don’t need nobody to hit me on the back to make me go even harder. I’m coming with it from the jump.”
So, how much better can Coleman be in Year 2?
“A lot,” he said.
The Olympic flag football tournament is three years away. But plenty of current players are talking about it.
Most recently, Bills quarterback Josh Allen made it clear he’d be interested in pursuing gold for the United States.
“I’m not gonna disrespect the guys that are playing flag football right now, but, you know, if there’s an opportunity for me to try, I would absolutely love to,” Allen told reporters on Tuesday. “I’ve always wanted to compete for my country and, you know, every time the Olympics are on, I’m tuned in and glued to the screen. But I think there’s really no greater honor to do that. That’d be really cool.”
Yes, flag football is a very different game than tackle football. However, it’s hard to imagine a physical specimen like Allen not figuring it out — and not being completely dominant.
Many decisions will need to be made by USA Football regarding how the U.S. men’s team will be selected. And, yes, current flag football players deserve an opportunity to compete.
It’s hard to imagine anyone competing with Josh Allen, if he’s determined to go for gold.
Joey Bosa’s first season with the Bills got off on the wrong foot, but the edge rusher expects to be rolling again when the team gets to training camp this summer.
Bosa is working with the team’s medical staff this spring after injuring his calf and he went through those workouts in front of reporters from the team’s minicamp on Wednesday.
After the workout, Bosa said, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Buffalo News, that, missing practice this spring to focus on his rehab has been out of caution. Bosa expects that he’ll be ready for a full workload when the team reports to training camp in July.
Bosa signed with Buffalo after he was released by the Chargers early in the offseason. He appeared in 15 games for Los Angeles last year, but only played in 14 over the two previous seasons and this spring’s calf injury won’t do much to snuff concerns that his health could be an issue again this season.
Nearly 10 years ago to the day, a certain someone took a certain ride down a certain golden escalator and most certainly upended American politics.
As Stephen A. Smith told it on Monday night’s edition of The Daily Show, the rise of Donald Trump the politician is tied directly to his inability to buy the Buffalo Bills a year before he threw his hat in the presidential ring.
“In 2014, he wanted to purchase the NFL’s Buffalo Bills,” Smith told Jon Stewart. “The price tag was $1.4 billion. . . . My sources tell me he had $1.1 [billion]. . . . He literally called me in 2014 and he said, ‘Stephen, I’m going to tell you this right now’ — and this is a quote — ‘if them mutherfuckers get in my way, I’m gonna get them all back. I’m gonna run for president.’ Those are his exact words.
“And so the NFL often jokes with me, ‘So it’s our fault’ when I tell them that story. And I say, ‘Yeah.’”
This prompted Stewart to make a direct plea to the camera: “People of Buffalo. Give him the fucking team. Save us.”
Smith explained Trump’s viewpoint on the matter.
“He was putting the word out that if this doesn’t happen — he wanted to do it, and this should happen, I’m Donald Trump, I’m very popular and well known, I’m worth over a billion dollars, I should be able to purchase an NFL team if I want it,” Smith said. “And if I can’t get it, it’s because they’re getting in my way. That was his position. Their position was, ‘You didn’t have enough money.’”
And he didn’t. Because at the end of the day that’s all it takes to buy an NFL team: Come up with the best offer. Terry and Kim Pegula came up with a better offer than the twice future president.
But, yes, there’s an alternate universe in which Trump owns the Bills and he isn’t the president and he calls in to PFT Live on a regular basis to complain that the league office is being very unfair.
Though he’s seeking a new contract, Bills running back James Cook showed up for the team’s mandatory minicamp this week.
Why?
“I like my money, you know? Definitely do,” Cook said in his Tuesday press conference. “So, that’s why I’m here.”
Had Cook not attended, he would have been subject to fines. But not only did Cook attend minicamp, he participated on the field. Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News noted Cook took six snaps during 11-on-11 drills.
“I mean, why not? I’m here. I’m part of the team,” Cook said when asked why he participated. “I’m a leader. So, just got to practice and get the job done.”
Cook, a second-round pick in the 2022 draft, is entering the last year of his rookie contract. He’s set to make $5.271 million in base salary for the coming season.
He does plan to be at training camp, though he did not commit to practicing if no contract gets done.
Cook also doesn’t feel any kind of way about the Bills signing other players to new contracts this offseason.
“No. I love those guys,” Cook said. “I mean, whatever they got paid, they got paid. That’s not my problem. I mean, why would I get mad over something that they got? I’m happy for them, actually. So, however it gets done with this deal — or however you want to say — it gets done. But in the meantime, I’m here to work and be where my feet [are].”
Cook said, “of course” he still wants to be with the Bills, but he wouldn’t go as far as saying he’s optimistic that the two sides will agree to an extension.
“At this moment,” Cook said, “I’m going to just keep working hard and let God take control and keep doing what I do.”
The Bills have added a player on defense.
Buffalo announced on Tuesday that the club has signed linebacker Shaq Thompson to a one-year deal.
Thompson, 31, had spent his entire career with the Panthers, where he was coached by Bills head coach Sean McDermott as Carolina’s defensive coordinator.
The linebacker has played just six games over the last two seasons due to injury. He suffered a broken fibula early in the 2023 season and a torn Achilles early on in 2024.
A first-round pick in 2015, Thompson has recorded 12.0 sacks, four forced fumbles, 26 passes defensed, and three interceptions in 123 career games.
Buffalo’s No. 4 is in the building.
While he’s seeking a new contract, Bills running back James Cook is present for the team’s mandatory minicamp, according to multiple reports.
Cook did not attend the team’s voluntary portion of the offseason program. But the fact that he’s in attendance for minicamp could be a positive sign of negotiations, even if Cook doesn’t do much on the field.
A second-round pick in 2022, Cook is entering the final year of his rookie contract. He has rushed for 1,000 yards in each of the last two seasons and led the league with 16 rushing TDs in 2024.
In 49 career games, Cook has 2,638 yards rushing with 20 touchdowns and 97 receptions for 883 yards with seven TDs.
