ORCHARD PARK – When the Buffalo Bills signed veteran free agent offensive lineman Austin Corbett in late March, one concern that was immediately raised was the perception that he has been injury-prone.
Well, there is no doubt that the 30-year-old has suffered from his share of injuries, but in his case, a little context is needed.
After getting traded by the Browns to Los Angeles midway through 2019, Corbett started the final 46 games he played for the Rams, culminating with the Super Bowl championship following the 2021 season. He then started all 17 games in 2022 after signing with the Panthers, but that’s when the trouble began.
In the last game that season, Corbett tore his ACL, and he did so only because even with nothing on the line, both teams eliminated from the postseason, Corbett could not stop hustling.
“I was chasing down an interception in New Orleans so yeah, it was tough,” he recalled recently. “I knew right when it happened. I felt it get stuck in the turf there and twisted up and was like, well, I’ve started 70 straight games or whatever the number was and it’s like it’s the NFL, it’s bound to happen eventually.”
After 10 months of recovery and rehab and missing the first six games of 2023 he returned good as new, started four in a row, and more bad luck arose as he got rolled up on against the Cowboys and this time it was his MCL.
“When it happened I was like, ‘Ah, just tighten my brace,’ so I finish the game out and hobbled in Monday morning, and they were like, ‘Let’s get you an MRI’ and they’re like, ‘Well, your MCL is gone,’” Corbett said.
That cost him the rest of that season, especially since there was no need to rush back with the Panthers going 2-15.
On to 2024 and after starting the first five, his play-to-the-whistle mentality got him again, prematurely ending another season.
“In that fifth game we had a big completion downfield, the receiver kind of fell down and got back up so I ran down there like 40 yards to push the pile,” said Corbett who by this time was playing center for Carolina. “The safety kind of fell off the tackle late and tore my bicep on my left arm.
“I knew it immediately, but I couldn’t help myself, so I got down there, we were on the 10-yard line, needed to finish the drive. It was my left arm so I could still snap. Finished the drive, ran to the sidelines and told the trainers, ‘Hey, just tore my bicep.’ And they’re like, ‘What do you mean?’ Sure enough, they look and it’s the Popeye bicep and everything.”
Finally, in 2025, he suffered another knee injury, rolled up again in a game against the Cardinals which cost him four weeks and at that point he was really starting to wonder if it might be time to call it quits, especially when he called home later that night.
“That was the one that kind of broke me mentally for sure,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on, why does this keep happening to me? I call my wife and my kids and that one was tough. My 3-year-old said, ‘Daddy, did you hurt yourself again?’ There were some tears that night for sure.”
Corbett persevered, got back into the lineup in time to suffer a 40-9 loss to the Bills, then was able to finish out the season healthy for the first time since 2021, and it changed his perspective on his future.
As a free agent, he could have chased more money, or perhaps more term on a contract, but he chose to sign a one-year, $1.2 million deal with the Bills because it was more about fit and culture, the chance to win a starting job with the left guard position open after the departure of David Edwards, and the opportunity to add a second Super Bowl ring to his security deposit box.
“Hitting free agency this time was like I’ve made my money, I’ve done that. This is purely that I love this game so much, even though it hasn’t necessarily loved me back,” he said. “This is my time to go love the game again, get back into that mindset of a new opportunity, new facelift, and get out there and enjoy this game and get back to what I’ve done.”
Ultimately, he said the choice came down to Buffalo or defending Super Bowl champion Seattle.
Beyond opportunity and the chance to play for a winner, Buffalo is much closer to his home in Charlotte than Seattle, and as a husband and father of three young children, that was important.
He knew several of the Bills such as Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, Spencer Brown, Michael Hoecht, Connor McGovern and Reid Ferguson either as former teammates, through NFLPA events, or through his agent, and that wasn’t the case with the Seahawks.
And through those players and other information he had gathered, he just felt like Buffalo was the place to be.
“It’s a winning organization for many reasons,” he said. “There is so much overlap of Carolina guys coming up, and being down there and just hearing nothing but great things. Our player development guy, Mark Carrier (who used to work for the Panthers) said nothing but great things, plus Pat Meyer was the O-line coach in Carolina right before I got there and I had nothing but great reviews of him.
“And hey, I was a part of SoFi Stadium when it first opened, let’s go be a part of Highmark Stadium when it opens. Where else do you get that chance, and to become a part of the Mafia?”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Injuries nearly broke him. Now one more shot with the Bills
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
