After not being drafted last month, Isaiah Bowser has secured his first shot at making an NFL roster.
Bowser, a 2018 Sidney graduate, signed a contract with the Buffalo Bills last Saturday after being invited to a rookie minicamp. He participated earlier in the day and is one of three players who signed with the team as a result of the minicamp, according to SI.com.
Bowser ran for 760 yards and 14 touchdowns on 194 carries in his final season with the University of Central Florida last year and caught 14 passes for 185 yards. It was a strong fifth-year season for him after he missed five games due to injury in 2021. He transferred from Northwestern to UCF after 2020; he ran for 1,300 yards and seven TDs on 334 carries in 23 games across three seasons for the Wildcats.
Signing a contract doesn’t guarantee Bowser a spot on the Bills’ final roster.
The team already had five running backs on the roster before signing Bowser, including James Cook, who ranked third on the team with 507 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 89 carries last year.
Two of the RBs on the roster currently are offseason additions in Latavius Murray and Damien Harris. Murray ran for 703 yards five touchdowns for Denver last season, while Harris ran for 462 yards and three TDs for New England.
Bowser isn’t the only undrafted free agent Buffalo signed; Fresno State graduate Jordan Mims signed with the team last week. He ran for 1,372 yards and 18 TDs on 261 carries with the Bulldogs last season.
With a pass-happy offense under the direction of Josh Allen, there will be a lot of competition among those RBs to make the 53-man roster.
Sidney won’t leave MVL Valley Division after all
Sidney was originally slated to swap places with Greenville in the Miami Valley League. The Yellow Jackets were going to head to the Miami Division, while the Green Wave was going to the Valley.
Sidney teacher and assistant athletic director Brett Bickel passed along information earlier this week the planned switch won’t take place after all.
Bickel reports the Yellow Jackets have won 44 of a total of 71 Valley Division titles since the league started in the 2019-20 school year. Every sport has won at least one division title, and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country and girls basketball have won all four division titles since the league began.
Divisional championships are secondary, as the 10-team league crowns an overall champion in each sport. Notably, Sidney’s boys and girls basketball teams have each won two overall championships in the first four years of the conference’s existence.
Billing has been the sports editor of the Sidney Daily News since 2017. He can be reached at [email protected].
