The Bills’ season came to an end with Sunday’s loss to the Bengals and that left players with the need to come to the facility in order to clean out their lockers on Monday.
Guard Rodger Saffold took some time out of that task in order to speak to reporters about the unhappy end to the season. There was a lot of talk on Sunday about the Bills not being able to match the energy that the Bengals brought to the field and Saffold’s comments suggest that’s the way it felt internally as well.
“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said, via Bridget Condon of NFL Media.
Saffold said players “haven’t been able to take a breath since the Damar situation” in reference to safety Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest during the team’s Week 17 game in Cincinnati and it was clear that the situation took a toll on the Bills emotionally over the last few weeks. They’ll have a chance to catch their breath now, but it will be a long time before they’ll get a chance to show that they’ve regained their footing on the field.