Bills Olympic gold medalist DT doing a 'nice job' in transition to new sport

Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich has been impressed with what he's seen from Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson thus far.

Kyle Silagyi | Aug 1, 2024

Aug 6, 2021; Chiba, Japan; Gable Dan Steveson (USA) with his gold medal at the medals ceremony for the men's freestyle 125kg wrestling competition during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Makuhari Messe Hall A. Mandatory Credit: Mandi Wright-USA TODAY Sports / Mandi Wright-USA TODAY Sports

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As the 2024 Olympic Games progress in Paris, a 24-year-old gold medalist is attempting to accomplish a different feat in Pittsford:

Make an NFL roster.

Gable Steveson, a decorated amateur wrestler who won gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2020 Tokyo Games, inked a three-year deal with the Buffalo Bills in May despite the fact that he had never laced up a pair of cleats until a few days prior to his signing. His onboarding at One Bills Drive was attributed to head coach Sean McDermott’s penchant for Steveson’s area of expertise; the sideline boss has long been an outspoken advocate of amateur wrestling and its relation to football, feeling as though there’s significant overlap in the skill sets and psyches deployed by the athletes competing in each sport.

Steveson’s summer task of making an NFL roster despite never playing football at any organized level is steep, but through the first week of Buffalo’s 2024 training camp, he’s made the impossible seem feasible; he earned praise from defensive coordinator Bobby Babich ahead of Thursday’s practice, with the coach noting that he’s performed well despite being entirely new to the sport.

“Gable’s doing a nice job,” Babich said. “If you think about it, he’s never put shoulder pads on before. We have a couple guys on the team, one of the coaches was joking around, I think we have two guys that have never worn shoulder pads. He’s done a nice job, he’s got to continue to grow. He’s extremely powerful, as we can all imagine, in more of a compact body. He’s very strong. He’s very strong, he understands leverage obviously. We know that, he won a gold medal for leverage. He’s doing a nice job, I’m excited to see him in-game action.”

Minnesota's Gable Steveson reacts after his match at 285 pounds in the finals during the sixth session of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, Saturday, March 19, 2022, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich. 220319 Ncaa Session 6 Wr 025 Jpg / Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

This is just the latest bit of praise that Buffalo’s brass has offered about Steveson since his late offseason signing. General manager Brandon Beane stated that his athletic profile and resume were worth taking a “shot” on in June before McDermott praised his natural strength and burst; the NFL’s active-all-time sack leader Von Miller even got in on the applause, telling reporters that Steveson has “all the athletic ability in the world.”

Steveson already showcasing impressive strength and understanding of leverages is not necessarily surprising—after all, he’s an Olympic gold medalist in a sport predicated on those two elements. That said, the fact that it’s translating to the gridiron through a handful of practices is encouraging; he’s still an extreme long-shot to crack the Bills’ 53-man roster this fall, but assuming he shows promise in a year on the practice squad, he could be an interesting name to watch at this time next year.

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