Bills have 2 free-agent additions
facing 6-game NFL suspensions for PEDs, GM Beane reveals
[March 15, 2025]
By JOHN WAWROW
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.”
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Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (99) rushes
during an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in Pittsburgh,
PA. (AP Photo/Matt Durisko, File)
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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