Buffalo Bill's latest call is relatively good news for Christian Wade's NFL future

The dream is still alive for Christian Wade in the NFL as he is set to included in at least another season with the Buffalo Bills.

The Bills released a list of 13 reserve and futures contracts handed out to players from their wider training roster and it includes the former Wasps star. This means that Wade is can not be signed by another NFL franchise for the time being.

Reserve/Future signings: pic.twitter.com/7qACV4vtWF

— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) January 26, 2021

It suggests that at the very least, the Buffalo Bills are eager to keep him around for the following season. An NFL reserve/future contract is offered to players who did not finish the regular season on their side’s active roster, whether they are on a practice squad or free agents. Such deals go into effect on the first day of the new league year, which in 2021 is March 17 (St Patrick’s Day).

England’s Six Nations press conference:

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PauseSkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 9:51

Loaded: 0%

0:00

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -9:51

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

• en (Main), selected

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

England’s Six Nations press conference:

Wade was signed in 2019 to the International Player Pathway (IPP), which means the former rugby union winger can count as a 91st man on a squad’s 90-man offseason and training camp.

His next task will be then to make the 53-man active roster, something he has yet to do in two seasons. If he fails again, he will be put into the waiver system, which means other teams can have pick him for their active rosters.

If he isn’t claimed by another team, Wade will then return to Buffalo Bills practice squad. As the Englishman is an IPP, he can be given an exemption so that he doesn’t count to towards the team’s limit for their practice squad.

Now 29, time is not on Wade’s side, however. Running back in the NFL is largely considered a young man’s position; studies into age trends in the sport suggest that the average ‘rushing yards’ of an NFL running back go into significant decline after the age of 27.

Wade, it should be pointed out, doesn’t have any rushing yards to go into decline as he is yet to feature in a regular-season NFL game.

Wade did enjoy an explosive start to his career, scoring a touchdown with his first touch in a pre-season game in 2019.

In his first football game ever. On his first NFL touch.

Former England rugby superstar Christian Wade just scored a 65-yard TD!!!@ChristianWade3 #INDvsBUF pic.twitter.com/4You01TFXz

— NFL (@NFL) August 9, 2019