ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Bills stand to open the season minus two new free-agent defensive line additions upon learning Larry Ogunjobi and Michael Hoecht both face six-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy, general manager Brandon Beane announced Friday.
“It’s not ideal to have two guys with that, but both guys have never had any issues off the field,” Beane said. “It’s a tough lesson of where do you get your supplements or whatever happened.”
Whatever happened is suddenly hampering the Bills retooled line, with Ogunjobi and Hoecht both expected to be unavailable to play until Week 7. Under NFL rules, the two players would not be barred from the team facility for the first four weeks, before being allowed to begin practicing.
Beane said the team was aware of Hoecht's positive test before agreeing to sign the hybrid defensive lineman/linebacker to a three-year, $24 million contract Monday.
Hoecht took responsibility in revealing he tested positive for testosterone, which he said was supplied to him by his long-time trainer.
“I’m ultimately mad at nobody but myself. I got complacent. I trusted someone I shouldn’t have trusted,” said Hoecht, who spent his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams. “It was a mistake. It was careless. And it’s ultimately my responsibility.”
As for Ogunjobi, who signed a one-year contract with $8 million guaranteed, Beane said the player revealed he had just received notice of testing positive upon arriving in Buffalo on Thursday to sign a contract the two sides agreed to on Tuesday. The 30-year-old has no history of testing positive and, last season, was the Pittsburgh Steelers nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
“It was a situation where I don’t really know what it was. But I think it was a tainted supplement that I took,” Ogunjobi said. “But I understand the league, we have an obligation to understand what we put in our body, and I take full responsibility for that.”
Beane credited Ogunjobi for being upfront even before the player’s B sample has been tested, while adding it’s not ideal to have two players facing season-opening suspensions.
Beane said the Bills would have passed on targeting the eighth-year player in free agency had they known of the positive test.
Beane said there was little choice but to honor the agreement in part because the market for defensive tackles is already drying up and Ogunjobi can still play a role on the team to close the season.
Upon formally signed his contract Friday, Ogunjobi said he was notified of the positive test at the same time his representatives had agreed to the deal with Buffalo.
“The organization handled it masterfully. They welcomed me with open arms. They understood the situation,” Ogunjobi said. “And I couldn’t be more excited to get on that field and support my team and this organization when my suspension is lifted."
Ogunjobi spent his first four NFL seasons with Cleveland, another with Cincinnati and the past three in Pittsburgh.
The 27-year-old Hoecht said he learned about the positive test three weeks into the offseason, and called it “the lowest point of my entire life.”
“It was careless. It’s fully my responsibility,” Hoecht said. “And it’s something I’m gonna have to own, something I’m gonna come up on the better side of and use it as motivation and as fuel.”
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Credit: AP
Credit: AP