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If you’ve looked at 53-man roster projections as of late, things don’t look great for Duke Johnson.
The veteran running back signed with the Buffalo Bills earlier this spring during free agency.
The thing about free agency: It comes before the draft.
There, the Bills selected a running back in the second round, James Cook. That was bad news for Johnson–But that’s not the way he’s trying to look at things as training camp approaches.
Rather, Johnson’s using it as an opportunity to be a good teammate.
“You look at it as competition, but we also look at it – the older guys – as being able to mentor,” Johnson told the Buffalo News. “We get it. We know it’s a numbers game. We all know that, but it doesn’t stop us from helping each other out, because at the end of the day, we want this team to be successful, because this team gave all of us an opportunity to play football and we want to make sure that whoever they do choose is the right guy.”
It’s not just Johnson and Cook vying for playing time in Buffalo’s backfield. There’s Zack Moss and special teams ace Taiwan Jones. At the top of the whole depth chart is Devin Singletary.
Johnson’s status is more in jeopardy than Singletary’s with Cook’s addition. But Singletary could stand to lose snaps because of the rookie.
Like Johnson, Singletary showed a team-first mentality which reflects the way the Bills have tried to built their locker room since Buffalo hired head coach Sean McDermott.
Singletary revealed that he already had worked out with Cook in the past during the offseason. It made putting the team first even easier for him.
“Basically picking up where we left off,” Singletary said on May 31. “It’s all love, picking up where we left off from the offseason and just finding ways to get better now. He’s picking up the offense fast and honestly it’s been fun.”
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