Best contract this week? Buffalo Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard
Free agency is here. Teams are inking players to massive contracts. A good time to remember the best contracts are signed in advance. Bernard is the face of a defense that must produce in January.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — The final game of his rookie season, Terrel Bernard was a gameday inactive. His Buffalo Bills hosted the Cincinnati Bengals in what was essentially every 7-year-old football player’s dream. The snow was falling. A trip to the AFC Championship Game was on the line. And… Sean McDermott deemed the services of this third-rounder out of Baylor were not required.
A difficult pill to swallow.
Bernard played a meager 10.47 percent of the defensive snaps through that first regular season.
On Monday, Bernard brought up this moment unprompted at a press conference. He’ll never forget this disappointment. He can’t. It “molded” something in his mind. Forced Bernard to looked inward like never before, to realize he wasn’t good enough.
“That’s something that I’ll hold in my mind for a long time,” Bernard said.
So, we asked Bernard what exactly was going through his mind when that news was delivered and how his career trekked this direction vs. the other. Many players would’ve cussed out their coaches, blamed others, disappeared into obscurity.
“I looked at myself: ‘What can I do to provide value to the team?’” Bernard said. “I think that’s a moment where you can go one of two ways, where you’re like, ‘Alright, whatever. I’m not going to be good enough. I’m not there yet.’ Or it can motivate you to take another step. And I feel like that’s what I tried to do that offseason. I had an opportunity to come in and play that next year and I did everything that I could that offseason to get my mind right, to get my body right, to really just prepare for if I did get a shot.”
Fifty days after that loss to Cincinnati, Tremaine Edmunds hit the jackpot with the Chicago Bears.
Bernard got his shot to start. Bernard did not waste it. Now, with a year left on his rookie deal, the Bills locked in Bernard long term at four years, $50 million.
In other words, the best value you’ll see all spring in the NFL.