Ian Wheeler keeps choosing football.
Even when football hasn’t always chosen him back.
Wheeler put medical school on hold for a shot at the NFL. He tore his ACL just as he believed he was about to make the Chicago Bears. He was eventually released, bounced to a practice squad and went to the UFL to prove he still belonged.
Wheeler could be studying medicine right now.
Instead, he’s studying the Buffalo Bills playbook.
Wheeler went from winning a UFL championship and earning United Bowl MVP honors in June to Bills training camp in July without an offseason program or a single practice with his new teammates before reporting to St. John Fisher University.
And he’s starting to make an impression.
Wheeler showed some of what caught Buffalo’s attention during Tuesday’s practice, turning a short catch into a long gain as he weaved through the defense and accelerated up the left sideline during 11-on-11 drills.
His ability to pick up everything else has impressed head coach Joe Brady just as much.
“Man, he’s extremely bright,” Brady said. “There’s nothing Ian’s done that I’m like, this guy feels out of place where he’s struggling to learn. It’s been pretty impressive.”
On June 13, he rushed for 81 yards and scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to help the Louisville Kings win the UFL title.
Five days later, he signed with Buffalo.
That meant Wheeler went directly from one football season into another without OTAs, minicamp or an offseason program to learn a Bills offense that Brady acknowledged asks plenty from its running backs.
Brady expected there to be a learning curve.
He hasn’t seen much of one.
“He didn’t get an offseason with us,” Brady said. “It’s not like he had an opportunity to meet with a coach prior to getting here.”
Asked what’s more difficult — learning an NFL playbook or organic chemistry — Wheeler had to think about it.
“Orgo is really hard,” Wheeler said.
Buffalo’s playbook has presented a different kind of test.
“This is hard because with organic, it is what it is. But here, you’ve got to kind of be able to adjust on the fly,” Wheeler said. “Especially this playbook. This playbook is one of the more challenging playbooks I’ve come across, especially because I’ve been thrown in the fire.”
Then Wheeler juked.
“Actually, I lied,” Wheeler said. “Orgo took me a long time to get right. But Orgo 2 was cool.”
Now he’s trying to build chemistry in one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses.
Ian Wheeler put medical school on hold for NFL dream
Wheeler always wanted to play in the NFL.
His mother just wanted to know what came after it.
“The dream was to play in the NFL,” Wheeler said. “My mom didn’t shut it down, but she was like, ‘What else?’ Because your career is so short.”
Education was never Wheeler’s fallback plan as much as another path he was pursuing at the same time.
The Houston native studied psychology at Howard University and graduated magna cum laude.
His GPA?
“I think I had a 3.6,” Wheeler said. “I was solid.”
During his final year of college, Wheeler was applying to medical schools while simultaneously preparing for a possible professional football career.
He wasn’t convinced the latter was realistic.
“Sometimes coaches say to you that you can go pro, but I didn’t really believe them, to be honest with you, just because of how my college career was turning out,” Wheeler said.
That changed as the NFL Draft approached.
Teams began talking to Wheeler about rookie minicamp invitations and the possibility of signing as an undrafted free agent. Suddenly, a decision that once seemed hypothetical became real.
Wheeler chose football.
He signed with Chicago after going undrafted in 2024 and made his NFL preseason debut against the Bills. Wheeler scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 33-6 Bears victory and believed he was positioning himself to make the roster.
Then he tore his ACL in Chicago’s final preseason game.
“I felt like I was going to be the UDFA to make the team,” Wheeler said. “Then you never know, because I got hurt.”
His season was over before it began.
And Wheeler had another decision to make.
“Especially after I tore my ACL, I had to decide, do I still want to do this?” Wheeler said. “And the answer is yes.”
How the UFL gave Ian Wheeler another path to the NFL
Wheeler spent his rookie season on injured reserve before Chicago eventually released him. He later spent time on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad.
His path back to an NFL training camp went through the UFL.
Wheeler emerged as Louisville’s leading rusher during its championship season, rushing for 370 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season. He added 175 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the playoffs, including a 44-yard go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter of the United Bowl on his mom’s birthday.
He didn’t view the UFL as his destination.
“When I got the chance in the UFL, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there that long,” Wheeler said. “The whole point of that league is to be there and leave. And I did that because I’m here now.”
Brady sees Wheeler as an example of exactly what a developmental league can provide.
“It allows us the opportunity for guys that might not have opportunities in the NFL, but they go take advantage of the opportunities that they got in that league,” Brady said. “He did a great job in it. If you’re playing football you’re getting evaluated and, credit our (staff) for seeing it, finding and him for him coming in ready to go.”
Wheeler is trying to give the Bills something to evaluate in a running back room that already includes holdovers James Cook, Ty Johnson, Ray Davis and Frank Gore Jr.
He’s also trying to fit into a group that has spent considerably more time together.
“The room is really good,” Wheeler said. “The guys have been here for a minute together. … Hopefully as camp goes we all get to know each other a little bit better and I mesh with the room.”
Will Ian Wheeler eventually go to medical school?
Football hasn’t eliminated Wheeler’s other dream.
It’s postponed it.
Wheeler was accepted into multiple medical schools coming out of Howard and now hopes to eventually pursue psychiatry.
“I’m really big on mental health,” Wheeler said. “There aren’t a lot of men in that field who are psychiatrists. It’s not just diagnosing and giving drugs. You can be a pseudo counselor, you can be a therapist at the same time. I kind of want to go down that avenue and help underserved and underdeveloped communities.”
When he’ll pursue it is considerably less certain.
Wheeler would have to apply to medical school again, and he knows the circumstances could be much different whenever his football career ends. He could have a wife. He could have children. Where he lives and what is best for his family could influence the decision.
For now, Wheeler is a football player.
Some of his Bears teammates knew about his medical-school aspirations and called him “Doc.” A few teammates in the UFL knew, too.
Wheeler hasn’t been in Buffalo long enough for many of his new teammates to know that part of his story.
He’s fine with that.
“I’m trying to stay as focused as I can on football,” Wheeler said. “I’m cool with everyone getting to know me and what my interests are, but trying to keep the main thing the main thing.”
Right now, the main thing is football.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills RB took unusual path to Buffalo and his quick study is impressing Joe Brady
Reporting by Ryan Miller, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Miller, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
