PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- When the Buffalo Bills held their first padded training camp practice this season, that first was more significant for a couple of players.
It was the first time defensive tackle Gable Steveson and offensive tackle Travis Clayton put on pads to play contact football.
Ever.
Steveson's signing comes following a wrestling career that included -- almost three years ago to the day -- winning an Olympic wrestling gold medal in Tokyo. Steveson is also a two-time NCAA champion at Minnesota. The 6-foot-1, 265-pound athlete signed with WWE in 2021 but was released this year.
Clayton is from Basingstoke, England, and experienced the basics of football in the lead up to the NFL draft as part of the International Player Pathway program (IPP). When the Bills selected him with the first pick in the seventh round , he became the second player drafted out of the IPP ( Jordan Mailata , 2018).
Steveson and Clayton were brought in for different reasons. The Bills initially looked into Steveson years prior but brought him in for a tryout this past spring as his athletic abilities meshing with the NFL intrigued them. They did not immediately sign him based on the roster at the time. Clayton, on the other hand, has extensive athletic potential -- 6-foot-7, 301 pounds with the ability to run a 4.79 40-yard dash -- to be developed and more flexibility with more time to do so, as IPP players grant teams an additional roster spot through camp.
Hundreds of players try to make training camp rosters with hopes of earning one of the 53 spots on the active roster. The learning curve for someone who has never played football before seems insurmountable. So, why do it? Why try a brand-new sport at its highest level?
The reality is professional athletes have skills that can carry over from one sport to the next that can help make them successful, while navigating the challenges of learning something brand new.
"You got a 90-man roster, and so you're trying to look for everything and you want it to be as competitive of a roster as you can, and sometimes the known player who's your 88th player, you already know when you bring him in, this is what he is," Bills general manager Brandon Beane said. "... Whereas maybe you're getting a guy here that's a rawer, less experience, but has the pedigree, the ability to have a higher ceiling, and so, let's take a shot here."
Steveson, 24, is far from the first wrestler to try his hand at the NFL. Among the list is Carlton Haselrig , a Pro Bowl right guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1990s and the only wrestler in NCAA history to win six individual national championships. About a decade later, Stephen Neal followed in a similar path, becoming a three-time Super Bowl champion guard for the New England Patriots .
Haselrig spoke with Neal when he was in the NFL and now Neal has spoken with Steveson.
"The biggest challenge was going from a sport where there's two people on the competition floor to 22," Neal told ESPN. "When you're just competing against one guy, you're trying to beat that one guy, and football is not about that. It's about working together with the other 10 guys on your side, understanding your role."
Steveson was brought up in a conversation between Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson and Bills coach Sean McDermott this year, which got the ball rolling, and then the team decided to bring him for a tryout and to see if it would be an overall fit. In 2019, Steveson was one of two University of Minnesota wrestlers arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct but did not face charges due to "inadequate evidence."
"Things will always be said, but I know who I am as a person and that's not me and it will never be me," Steveson told ESPN when asked about the past allegations. Beane said in June that Steveson was not charged and "everything checked out."
On the field, Steveson benefits from McDermott's wrestling background -- he's a two-time national prep school wrestling champion. The coach's knowledge of wrestling terms helped guide Steveson in his workout with the Bills, such as for performing the movements that overlap between sports. McDermott is a believer in the skill set from wrestling translating over to football, notably for the offensive and defensive linemen.
"I think more than anything, the quickness, the burst, the power, all that you can tell in a small workout," McDermott said on signing Steveson. "Those are the things that you try and identify from a defensive line standpoint."
While Steveson had no defensive line knowledge when he came in for his workout, defensive line coach Marcus West focused on his athleticism, and how the gold-medalist's skills could translate. He noted that 80% of the work is teaching the game of football, while 20% is "matching him where he is as an athlete."
"I am from Columbus, Mississippi, live in Buffalo, New York. I've skated on the ice for fun, never for competition. ... Can I skate? Yes. I can skate and not fall. But to teach me to become a professional hockey player would blow my mind," West said.
"But at the same time ... as much as it may humble him to walk in this arena, we also have to lift him up and praise him every once in a while, to get his opinion, to say, 'Hey, you've been on this stage, what have you learned?'"
As the Bills progress through camp, the focus for Steveson has been on the basics. such as perfecting his stances and knowing where to be and how certain elements of the position are to be performed. Leverage is one of the premier skills that has carried over from wrestling -- knowing how to move his feet and hands. Steveson tries to "make it a wrestling match, but make it in football," continuously moving his feet, but the big thing remains to know where to be on a given play.
"We can get off the ball, but the ball's gotta be handed off or the play's gotta be made for you to even go get it," Steveson said. "You can't be two steps ahead. You gotta know where to start and you gotta know where to finish."
Athletes coming from a variety of sports have experimented with the NFL. Zed Williams, 29, a champion in both the Premier Lacrosse League and National Lacrosse League, was invited for a minicamp tryout in June, but he was not signed to the active roster. Williams played football and lacrosse in high school, and while he went to college for lacrosse, football remained a passion.
While the physicality wasn't a problem, Williams said because of the limited time in camp, making an impression was difficult due to the need to learn plays and feel confident executing them.
"You could just tell ... I felt really good physically and stuff. I just, I didn't know the playbook," Williams said.
The importance of time was echoed by Neal, it was a key part of his NFL transition. The time to learn the game after flashing his potential with stints on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad and an injury that ultimately assisted his learning.
"I encouraged [Steveson]. I'm like, 'You just gotta find a situation that they're gonna be able to keep you around long enough to learn,'" Neal said. "Because that's the one thing I was very fortunate with New England, they kept me around and they saw something in me."
Clayton, 23, has a bit of a time advantage on Steveson. He was briefly introduced to football in 2019 at 17 when he signed up for the NFL Academy -- a program that combines education and the opportunity to train in football for young adults -- in England, but didn't stick with it. At the time, he knew the sport, but "I didn't know how physical it was."
He then played at inside center for his local rugby club -- the rugby experience helped in learning NFL plays --and experienced a growth spurt of a few inches in the last three to four years. He kept thinking back on not sticking with football and then an opportunity came together.
Beginning in January of this year, he spent time training with the IPP's 10-week training program in Florida. The program offered an opportunity to learn all of the basics of an offensive lineman and NFL life, including using a similar daily schedule to what Clayton experiences now.
"The hardest thing for me would be just remembering the playbook and different plays and remembering your responsibilities as well as where the ball's being moved to," Clayton said. "And even when I was in the International Player Pathway, we knew some basic techniques, we were taught some, but when you come here, the techniques are similar, but at the same time, they're completely different."
Throughout his life, he experimented with a variety of sports ranging from soccer -- his favorite -- to trampoline to tennis. "A lot of the time you're like pivoting in tennis," Clayton said. "You'll go side to side and as an offensive lineman, you're going side to side every time and you gotta have that coordination of when you step in tennis, you have to hit the ball. Same thing with football."
"As long as [Clayton is] not trying to compare himself to Dion Dawkins right now and just saying, `Hey, I might not have won that rep. But, man, I used this technique that I haven't used.' To us that's the big thing. And that's what's been exciting about him," offensive coordinator Joe Brady said.
Making the roster for both Steveson and Clayton will be a challenge. Clayton has been out of practice since July 29 with a shoulder injury (day to day) and while the team can get an additional practice squad spot for him once rosters are created through the IPP program, he would first have to pass through waivers.
Meanwhile, Steveson finds himself learning the sport in a crowded defensive line room.
The goal remains to take advantage of the time and use what they are learning and the skillset to get better each day.
"The mentality. You just have to never give up, especially once you set a goal. Some things didn't go my way in the past," Clayton said. "... As long as you set your goal, just keep grinding, you'll get there."
Most Popular
Comments / 0