It seems less and less likely that Frank Gore will be back with the Buffalo Bills. At the team’s end of season locker cleanout day, Gore said he was going to think about things.
According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Gore wants to play a 16th season next year. But Garafolo gave no indication that it would be with the Bills.
“He’s going to have to find a situation, he’s going to have to find a suitor and maybe he waits until deep into training camp, maybe into the season, who knows? I don’t know much of the time lime, but I can tell you, as of right now, Frank Gore intends to continue playing in the NFL in 2020,” Garafolo said.
Since the Bills haven’t yet re-signed Gore, that’s a very telling sign that he’s probably not going to return to western New York. There was also a telling sign from Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott when he spoke at the combine, too.
When discussing the running back situation his team currently has, McDermott never once mentioned Gore. Sure, he’s not under contract, but McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane, time and time again, have praise Gore’s intangibles. To go from that to nothing is telling.
Additionally, McDermott spewed a lot of positives about TJ Yeldon, instead.
“We do have TJ in there,” McDermott said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in TJ…. in the games that he did get in there, he contributed at a high level from a leadership stand point.”
Not talking about Gore in favor of a guy who was inactive for a lot of last season is another indication, but hopefully Gore finds his way on a roster somewhere, if those are his true hopes.
Gore, who will be 37 in May, had 599 rushing yards and averaged a career-low 3.6 yards per carry with the Bills last season. Gore’s 15,347 career rushing yards ranks third in NFL history, 1,379 behind Walter Payton and 3,008 behind all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith.
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