Sal Maiorana

@salmaiorana

James Wilder rushed for more than 6,000 yards during his 10-year career with Tampa Bay.

James Wilder Jr. is trying to make the Bills roster as a free agent.

Wilder Jr. has spent the previous two seasons on the Bengals practice squad.



This past Fathers’ Day was a memorable one for James Wilder Jr. and his dad, former NFL standout running back James Wilder.

“NFL Network sent me all this film, games and interviews with my father, so we got to sit down and watch it together on Fathers’ Day,” Wilder Jr. said the other day. “Most of it I’d already seen, but it was cool.”

And most of what Wilder Jr. saw of his father during the elder’s 10-year career — all of it spent with the usually lousy Tampa Bay Buccaneers — was pretty impressive, something the younger man would love to emulate someday as a member of the Buffalo Bills.

Wilder Jr. joined the Bills in January after two years bouncing around on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad. Although he has never dressed for an NFL game, the Bills thought it was worth taking a look at a player who stands 6 foot 1, weighs 226 pounds, and had a comparable college career at Florida State with that of Buffalo’s 2015 fifth-round draft pick, Karlos Williams.

Also, as Rex Ryan said, it didn’t hurt the kid to have a name like Wilder. “Obviously, a good pedigree,” Ryan said. “If he’s half as good as his dad, we know he’s going to be a heck of a player.”

When he was asked if blood lines mean anything in the NFL, Ryan smiled and said, “Well, I hope so, you know what I mean?” The inference was that his dad, Buddy, was a pretty good coach, and Rex — as he’ll readily tell you — fancies himself as a chip off the old block.

“I think there is something to it, but you don’t expect him to be his dad, that’s kind of a given,” said Ryan. “If it was that easy we’d be taking everybody’s kid. I think it helps, though. He probably has a better idea of what it takes to play in this league than probably a lot of people.”

Wilder Jr. wasn’t even born when his father’s career came to an end in 1990 after 6,008 rushing yards, 3,500 receiving yards, 47 touchdowns, and one Pro Bowl appearance. But all he has to do is watch that old film, or speak to long-time fans of the Bucs to know just how good his dad was.

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“It’s awesome, man,” Wilder Jr. said. “He’s a very humble guy. He never talks about football. If you bring it up, he still kind of even shies away from it, but you can see it in his face, you can see it in his smile. The family reminds me, ‘Oh, you’re going to be like your dad.’ The support and love that they show him down in Tampa is pretty awesome. I like to brag about him, but you’ll never hear it from him.”

Wilder Jr. also doesn’t shy away from the fact that his father was a fine player who set the bar pretty high for his son. Some sons of former players in any sport struggle with the comparisons and expectations, but Wilder Jr. has never had a problem with it.

“It’s cool, it’s cool, I’m always James Wilder Jr., the son of James Wilder,” he said. “I’ll probably never be mentioned without him being mentioned, but that’s an honor, that’s something I’ve got to live up to. To be able to have somebody to learn from who played in the league 10-plus years, not a lot of people get that. I’m honored to be able to have him in my life as a father and as a mentor.”

With Williams serving a four-game suspension to start the season, Wilder Jr. saw a great opportunity to make the team. However, things got a little more difficult Monday when the Bills signed free agent running back Reggie Bush to a one-year contract.

On opening day, LeSean McCoy will be the starter, and assuming the 31-year-old Bush has something left and makes the team, he’ll be the backup. Then you have rookie Jonathan Williams, Buffalo’s fifth-round pick, next on the depth chart, so Wilder Jr. will probably have to beat out Boom Herron and Mike Gillislee.

“It’s unfortunate for Karlos to sit out those games,” said Wilder Jr., who gained 1,545 yards from scrimmage and scored 22 touchdowns at Florida State compared to Williams’ 1,747 yards and 23 TDs. “But it opens up opportunities for me to be able to get my foot in the door and get more reps in practice and preseason and show the coaches my talent.”

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If he doesn’t make it, he has no practice squad eligibility remaining so he’d have to seek work elsewhere, a fact he’s well aware of.

“Oh yeah, it’s now or nothing,” he said. “ "...Right now I have this short time period to be able to show what I have to lock myself on this team.”

Ryan, for one, likes what he has seen so far, dating back to the off-season.

“He’s a young man that’s been fairly impressive, I think, in the OTAs and the mini-camps and things leading up to the training camp,” he said. “The other thing is he’s actually a very good special teams player. That’s something that jumped out to our scouts and obviously that was what was told to me, so I’m excited to see him when we really starting scrimmaging and things like that, (see) how he does.”

MAIORANA@Gannett.com



