Bills running back C.J. Spiller wasn’t able to repeat his 2012 performance last season, dropping from six yards a carry to 4.6 while struggling to get over an ankle injury for much of the season.
Given the injury, Spiller said he was still pleased with the way he performed but knows that there’s more that he’s able to do on the field. He said Tuesday that he’s motivated by those who thought 2012 might have been a one-year aberration, but that’s just one motivation he has to put his best foot forward in 2014.
Spiller is entering the final year of his contract and he’s seen the relative weakness of the market for running backs. He’s also heard the stories about running backs declining as they hit their late 20s, but said that he plans to spend this year proving that he’s worth a lucrative deal anyway.
“I don’t think nothing about it. It’s just somebody that came up with a stat. Good on their part,” Spiller said, via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. “I don’t think my play is going to decline. If you really go look at my body of work, I don’t really have a ton of carries. I probably have maybe 600. And this is going into my fifth year. You look at other guys who have almost 2,000 carries, it’s a huge difference. I don’t think about it. I don’t pay attention to it. I’ll be 27 this year and if people say that’s my peak, then that’s them. But to me, I’m just going out there and just balling.”
Spiller hasn’t started talks with the Bills about an extension, in part because he has yet to hire a new agent since Gary Wichard died in 2011. Once he hires one, those talks can start although Spiller sounds like he’d willing to bet on himself having a big 2014 season before signing a new contract.