Longtime college football coach Steve Kragthorpe, who spent two seasons with the Bills, died Sunday night after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Kragthorpe was 59.
Kragthorpe, who played quarterback at Eastern New Mexico and West Texas, began his coaching career at Northern Arizona in 1990. He then coached at North Texas, Boston College and Texas A&M.
In 2001, Kragthorpe joined the Bills to coach the quarterbacks under Gregg Williams. Drew Bledsoe had his fourth and final Pro Bowl season in 2002 with Kragthorpe, throwing for 4,359 yards with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Kragthorpe left the Bills after two seasons to take his first head coaching job, replacing Keith Burns at the University of Tulsa.
The Golden Hurricanes went to three bowl games in four years with Kragthorpe after not having had a winning season since 1991. Kragthorpe went into the Tulsa Hall of Fame earlier this year.
He spent three seasons as head coach at Louisville and finished his head coaching career with a 44-43 record.
Kragthorpe went to LSU as offensive coordinator in 2011 but stepped down after his Parkinson’s diagnosis. He instead spent two years in Baton Rouge in an off-field role.
Five years later, Matt Breida is going back to where his NFL career started.
Via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, Breida is signing with the 49ers.
He spent three seasons in San Francisco, from 2017 to 2019. He was traded to the Dolphins in 2020. He spent 2021 with the Bills and 2022 and 2023 with the Giants.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Breida tried out for the 49ers on Monday, along with running backs Anthony McFarland and Ke’Shawn Vaughn.
In seven NFL seasons, the 29-year-old Breida has 2,652 regular-season rushing yards, 935 receiving yards, and 15 touchdowns.
The 49ers currently have six other running backs on the roster, led by 2023 NFL offensive player of the year Christian McCaffrey.
The Bills have another injury concern at safety.
Buffalo announced on Thursday that rookie Cole Bishop is week-to-week with a shoulder injury.
Bishop suffered the injury during Tuesday’s practice. It comes just after fellow safety Mike Edwards suffered a hamstring injury that has left him week-to-week.
The Bills selected Bishop with the 60th overall pick in the second round out of Utah. He was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2023.
With Edwards sidelined, Buffalo signed veteran safety Kareem Jackson earlier this week. They may now need to make another move to fortify depth at the position.
When last we saw receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, he was making key catches in postseason wins over the Bills and the Ravens. After being cut by the Chiefs due to a salary that the team believed his skills didn’t justify, he signed with the Bills.
He could be cut again.
Joe Buscaglia of TheAthletic.com recently reported that MVS “has faded into the background” and “has yet to make a strong impression in the passing game during team drills” and his chances with quarterback Josh Allen “have dwindled.”
Buscagalia notes that Valdes-Scantling, during a first-team versus first-team drill which included a few substitutes on each side of the ball, was relegated to a second field with backups.
The Bills gave him a $1.125 million signing bonus, and his $1.125 million salary is fully guaranteed.
Valdes-Scantling played four seasons with the Packers and two with the Chiefs, winning a pair of Super Bowl rings.
The Bills have added a safety to the roster for the second time this week.
The team announced the signing of Terrell Burgess on Wednesday. They signed former Bronco and Texan Kareem Jackson on Tuesday.
Burgess had 25 tackles in 12 appearances for the Commanders last season. He made one start on defense and was a regular on special teams.
Prior to Washington, Burgess played for the Rams and Giants. He was a 2020 third-round pick in Los Angeles and helped them to their Super Bowl LVI win before being released by the team during the 2022 season.
The Bills cut punter Jack Browning to open a spot for Burgess. Sam Martin is now the only punter on the Buffalo roster.
Veteran linebacker A.J. Klein has played his final NFL snap.
Klein announced his retirement in a post to Instagram on Tuesday. The announcement comes as NFL training camps unfold without him for the first time since 2013.
The Panthers made Klein a fifth-round choice that year and he spent four seasons in Carolina before moving on to the Saints for three seasons. He played for the Bills in 2020 and 2021 and then split the 2022 season between Buffalo, Chicago and Baltimore. Klein then returned to play two games for the Bills last season.
Klein played 162 regular season and playoff games for his career. He had 505 tackles, 15.5 sacks, four interceptions, eight forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries in those appearances.
The Bills released a statement after offensive lineman Alec Anderson was transported to a local hospital after becoming overheated at training camp.
“Bills offensive lineman Alec Anderson is currently recovering in a local hospital after suffering heat related illness symptoms after today’s practice,” the team said. “The Bills medical team, [General Manager] Brandon Beane and [coach] Sean McDermott spoke with Alec by phone a short time ago, and he was in good spirits. He is expected to be released from the hospital later this afternoon.
Anderson signed with the Bills after going undrafted in 2022 and has spent time on their practice squad. He has never played in a regular-season game.
Bills offensive lineman Alec Anderson had to be taken to the hospital during Tuesday’s training camp practice.
Anderson was suffering from heat-related issues and was checked out in the medical tent before being transported for treatment in an ambulance. The Bills did not offer any other update on Anderson’s condition, but left tackle Dion Dawkins said after the workout that he thought Anderson will be OK.
“It’s not as nerve-wracking as you would think because our medical staff is top tier,” Dawkins said, via Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. “Alec is a tough dude. Regardless of what it is, he’ll be alright.”
Anderson signed with the Bills after going undrafted in 2022 and has spent time on their practice squad.
Veteran safety Kareem Jackson has found a new NFL home.
The Bills announced on Tuesday that they have signed Jackson to their 90-man roster. It’s a one-year deal for Jackson in Buffalo and the Bills cut linebacker Shayne Simon to make room for him.
Jackson opened last season with the Broncos and started eight games, but missed six others while serving a pair of suspensions for violating the league’s player safety rules. He was waived late in the season and landed with the Texans as a waiver claim.
Jackson began his career in Houston as a 2010 first-round pick and played for the team through the 2018 season. He moved on to Denver in 2019 and has 954 tackles, 22 interceptions, seven forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries, and three sacks over his entire career.
John Elway was a strong-armed, mobile quarterback for the Broncos during his playing days and he had a chance to select a similar player when he was the team’s General Manager in 2018.
The Broncos had the fifth overall pick and Josh Allen was on the board when they went on the clock. Elway opted to take edge rusher Bradley Chubb and Allen fell to the Bills with the seventh overall pick, which was a decision that Elway discussed during an appearance on Pardon My Take this week.
Elway said he recently played golf with Allen and that it took the Bills quarterback “two and a half holes” to realize the Broncos had a chance to draft him. He then referred to it as perhaps his biggest blunder as an executive.
“I loved him. But it just didn’t work out,” Elway said. “He was my type. That was probably my biggest mistake of my G.M. days, was not taking Josh.”
The Broncos had taken Paxton Lynch in the first round of the 2016 draft and the tall Memphis product did not pan out. That led the Broncos to sign Case Keenum earlier in 2018 and the two moves may have contributed to Elway’s decision to pass on Allen, although he also seemed to really like Chubb.
Bills G.M. Brandon Beane said in 2018 that he and Elway had discussed a trade that would have move the Bills into the No. 5 spot, but Elway passed because he didn’t want to risk missing out on Chubb. While Chubb turned out to be a fine player, the Broncos have been searching for the right answer at quarterback throughout Allen’s career and that makes passing on him all the more painful.