Bills running back LeSean McCoy is used to being doubted. He’s now being doubting regarding his age, and he’ll be using that to motivate him in 2019, the final year of his current contract.
“I use age and that type of thing to motivate me,” McCoy said Saturday at his youth football camp, via PennLive.com. “My whole life I’ve kind of been the underdog. Is he big enough? Is he tough enough? Can he play in the pros? I feel like guys like myself come around every once in a while and I want to stick to that. I’m up for it.”
McCoy definitely has confidence in his abilities, even as he closes in on his 31st birthday.
“It’s hard to replace a guy like me,” McCoy said. “I’m a good player and I feel like now, this year, they put a lot of guys around me. The front office got me some big hogs up front. And we’ll see what happens this year. I feel good and hopefully this year will speak for itself.”
McCoy has a constant reminder of the fact that a good year at 31 remains possible, in the presence of 36-year-old Frank Gore.
“Every day I see [Gore] playing hard,” McCoy said. “I see his growth, his smarts, his ability. That shows me that anything is possible.”
When it comes to McCoy’s status with the team in 2019, everything remains possible. His salary of $6.175 million isn’t justified by his 514 rushing yards and 3.2 yards-per-carry average in 2018, and the Bills could be plotting a well-timed ultimatum to reduce his salary or become an eleventh-hour entry to the free-agent market, where it would be difficult if not impossible to find a team that would pay McCoy $6.175 million for the coming season.
Plenty of teams have made plenty of pitches like that, usually in mid-to-late August. Even if the Bills don’t do it, McCoy should be bracing for that possibility.