91 Buffalo Bills players in 91 days: DT Gable Steveson

Buffalo Bills and head coach Sean McDermott have clearly shown an affinity for former wrestlers during their time together. McDermott, himself a wrestler as a child, has long discussed the discipline the sport teaches, as well as the lessons about leverage and using one’s body that come with success on the mat.

While the team has employed many former wrestlers or football players who traded their fall sports cleats for their winter sports jerseys, they dove deeper into the wrestling deep end last month. Not only did they sign a former wrestler, but they also signed one who is a former gold medalist who has never played football at any level in his life.

Will the bet pay off on the pitch? Only time will tell. For now, in our latest edition of “91 Players in 91 Days,” we discuss the Bills’ latest addition along the defensive line.

Name: Gable Steveson

Number: 61

Position: D.T.

Size weight: Reports vary. Wikipedia lists him at 6’1″ and 265 pounds, but I’ve seen him listed between 265 and 280.

Age: 24 (25 on 05/31/2025)

Experience/Project: R; signed with Bills on 05/31/2024

College: Minnesota

Acquired: Signed with invoices on 05/31/2024

Financial situation (by Spotrac): Steveson’s one-year contract is worth a total of $795,000, none of which is guaranteed. I read reports that his contract was for three years, but Spotrac hired him on a one-year contract.

2023 summary: Steveson spent the year on the NXT program WWE franchise. He was with the company until early 2024, but was released from his contract before signing with Buffalo.

Positioning prospects: Steveson is one of eight defensive tackles on the roster. The others are Ed Oliver, Eli Ankou, DeShawn Williams, DeWayne Carter, DaQuan Jones, Branson Deen and Austin Johnson.

2024 offseason: Steveson just signed after a tryout with the team, so he hasn’t had many OTA opportunities so far.

Outlook for the 2024 season: This is an interesting signing for the Bills in terms of finding talent in untapped markets. Although Steveson is rather small for a professional defensive tackle, he very clearly understands that the low man wins, and his functional strength is obviously elite caliber considering he won a gold medal in the Summer Olympics of 2020.

The difference between wrestling and football, of course, is that the opposing wrestlers are all about the same weight, whereas the other guys in a football match are not bound by such rules. Offensive linemen who outweigh Steveson by more than 50 pounds could use their significant size advantage to negate any leverage advantage he has.

Maybe the Bills strength and conditioning team can add about 20 pounds to Steveson and teach him the technique needed to succeed as a rotation player, but I think it’s more likely a throwing a dart at an elite athlete than anything else. Steveson is a long way off even for the practice squad given his inexperience, but strange things have happened.