Frank Gore is immortal, but the Bills are his biggest test yet

Frank Gore has always been here. And he will always be here. Long after we’re gone, the former 49ers, Eagles (lololol), Colts, and Dolphins running back will still be grinding out first downs with the same burst and strength as the day he entered the league. He does not age and he does not wither. We’re all in various stages of physical decay, but not Gore.

In a war against the very concept of hubris, Gore has elected to shoulder a great burden: being a running back for the Buffalo Bills in a frigid, old-bones-wrecking dystopia.

Alright, let’s dial it back a bit. Buffalo isn’t a dystopia, but it is cold (which does, in fact, impact older players a lot more than rookies), and it does have a reputation for chewing up and spitting out veteran players previously thought to have something left in the tank.

Contrary to popular belief, and the fourth sentence of this article, Gore does age, at least by human standards — he’s 36 years old now. Still, he will probably be fresh as a spring daisy when training camp rolls. He’s proven that time after time, even though the Bills present a new challenge.

In his 14-year career, Gore has shown over and over again why he earned his “Inconvenient Truth” nickname. He’s not the player who will bust a big play every single time, but his vision and toughness are unmatched in the league. Though it is often overlooked, he remains one of the best pass blockers in the NFL, which should help his new quarterback Josh Allen out quite a bit.

Sometimes his style of running equates to 3 yards and gang tackle. Sometimes it’s about finding a hole that doesn’t exist, shrugging off a defender like he wasn’t even there, and hitting the open field for a 20-yard-or-more gain. Gore just keeps on chugging, and has managed to put up positive yardage despite facing stacked boxes for most of his career.

For years, opposing players set to face Gore noted that his ability to “fall forward” made him one of the more difficult backs to bring down. That is alluding to Gore’s tilted style of running where his upper body is always leaning forward, regardless of which direction the rest of his body is going.

In 2014, Gore became the 29th player in NFL history to rush for over 10,000 yards. He has the fourth-most rushing yards in NFL history (14,748, and that’s with missing a lot of time early in his career from injuries), and has made five Pro Bowls. It’s going to be hard to break his record streak of seasons with 1,200 scrimmage yards, too.

Last year in Miami, he was on his way to another 1,000-yard season before a foot injury ended his season in Week 15. He finished with 722 yards and averaged 4.6 yards per carry while splitting time. He was the 11th-best running back, per Pro Football Focus, who also tracked 23 broken tackles.

Some Bills fans weren’t high on the Gore signing, primarily due to his age. But he’s defied those odds and will continue to do so right up until the moment he finally slows down — if he ever does.

First, Gore’s least appreciated skill: his ability to block in the backfield. Gore can protect your passer, especially a mobile passer, better than pretty much any back in the league. He puts everything into his blocks. While Josh Allen is a strong runner, he’s still fairly raw as a passer, and Gore trying to keep him clean should help the offense in ways that aren’t always noticeable.

He’s also a reliable receiver, with few egregious drops over the course of his career. Last season he wasn’t thrown to much, but two-thirds of his 12 receptions were first downs. He picks his moments, and he’ll be a reliable underneath option for Allen as he transitions from run-first to pass-first. The goal for Allen is to run enough for teams to bite on fakes where he dumps it off to guys like Gore.

On a play-to-play basis, Gore will be used to spell LeSean McCoy, who himself is getting up there in years. Still, their running styles differ greatly and Gore will make for an excellent change-of-pace back who can help McCoy rebound from a 2018 that saw him hit a career-low 3.2 yards per carry. Imagine McCoy tiring out defenses for the first half, and then that same defense having to deal with having to tackle Gore. That prospect might not be as scary as it would have been four or five years ago, but it can still be lethal.

Then there’s rookie Devin Singletary, a third-rounder who racked up 66 rushing touchdowns in three years at FAU. He won’t be the main back in his first year, but he could take over as the starter after that. Given that Bills GM Brandon Beane already said he hoped Gore would be a leader in the locker room, Singletary should benefit from Gore’s presence alone.

Even though Gore is 36 and coming off an injury, having to acclimate to the coldest city of his career could be more detrimental to his health than anything. It’s not a myth that “cold affects old bones,” and Gore is probably going to wake up with more aches and pains than usual.

The Bills play in a tough division, and despite them putting together an impressive offseason, Gore might not see more wins in Buffalo than he did in Miami or Indianapolis. Maybe Buffalo, a team with an unproven quarterback and an offense that still has lots of questions, is finally where Gore hits the wall.

But people have been betting that Gore is finished for at least the past five years, and he continues to prove them wrong.