The Buffalo Bills only just got offensive lineman Rodger Saffold in the fold due to some bizarre circumstances.
The 34-year-old was in a car accident just prior to training camp which led to an injury to his ribs.
Prior to Saffold discussing the injury on Sunday, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane explained that he was thankful it wasn’t worse. The GM added Saffold was OK at the start of camp, it was just the type of issue that caused pain with minimal movements.
“You don’t want to put a timetable on it, but those generally take some time. I mean, it’s tough for him to sleep. Anybody that’s ever cracked some ribs can probably speak to that,” Beane said.
Saffold explained that he’s now feeling better. He also didn’t want to go down memory lane.
“I don’t really want to go into the details of the crash because, obviously, it was traumatic for me. It was just an accident and I had some sore ribs,” Saffold said.
Understandable, but at least he’s back in good health now.
“I’m doing great,” Saffold said. “Trainers have done a fantastic job of bringing me in slowly. And I’m just gaining more and more confidence every day. They wouldn’t be putting me out there if I wasn’t ready to play. Of course there’s some soreness that you’ve got to work through, but that’s just part of the game.”
Saffold explained that he didn’t think the ribs would be much of a problem when he got to training camp. Then the team’s medical staff thought otherwise.
“It wasn’t until I got back here that I figured out the damage that was in place and that I needed to be smart about it–We just had to take some time,” Saffold said.
At this point, Saffold was just happy the Bills’ training staff were able to spot the issue.
And despite his spell on the PUP list which ended on Aug. 7, he’s excited the he will be better off in the long run once the regular season starts–even if that means missing some time in exhibition games.
“There’s no limit to what we can be,” Saffold said.
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