Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News spoke with a source who indicated that the Bills never extended veteran G Richie Incognito a contract offer during the season.
According to Dunne, the Bills “lowballed” Incognito at the Scouting Combine last week, and didn’t contact his representatives for a four-day period.
A recent report mentioned that “frustrated” with Incognito’s refusal to take their offer, and the team believes he should give them a break after they were the only team willing to offer him a second chance at an NFL career.
However, Incognito made it clear that he isn’t looking to take a deep discount just to be back in Buffalo.
“This is a high-stakes business,” Incognito said. “There’s no such thing as a hometown discount. There’s fair, there’s market value, there’s team-friendly, there’s player-friendly. . . . I definitely feel I owe Buffalo a lot. But I owe them on the football field.
“I play my heart out.”
Buffalo elected to sign him to a one-year contract and Incognito responded with a Pro Bowl season and is now in position to be one of the better guards in this year’s free agent market.
Incognito, 32, wound up being a much better signing than many anticipated for the Bills when they signed him to a one-year, $1.45 million last year. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in the coming days.
In 2015, Incognito appeared in all 16 games for the Bills and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 2 guard out of 82 qualifying players.
We have him featured in our Top 2016 Free Agents list.
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