Michael Hoecht Achilles Injury (Confirmed torn Achilles out for the year)

[Puckman5]

8 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

To keep me mentally sane, I just pretend that we never signed him. 

I was doing a similar thing the last few weeks when this board had me convinced Josh was in a funk.  I just pretended we actually drafted Josh Rosen and he was finally coming around!    

[Xwnyer]

Amazing sign guy spends time on suspension and get two games out of him.  He was making a major impact and now lost for season on a simple push off.  Do we not have a decent stretching program???

49 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Im thinking poor stretching habits and possibly hydration during the game..

Plus previous “use” of PEDs

[Golden*Wheels]

Goddamn.

 

Get well my guy. You were killin it yesterday. All good thoughts.

[Royale with Cheese]

9 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

Dan Marino and Terrell suggs both played well after

 

And those were 10 and 20 years ago.

 

Medicine is better now.  Jason Tatum and Haliburton both tore their Achilles last year, both really on very quick twitch speed.

They'll be fine when healthy.

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

Where is Calais Campbell now? Get this fossil in here for one last kick at the can for him … 

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

2 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

Age and speed are big factors for recovery... Achilles are low blood tendons so guys who have had them learn proper stretching and strengthening.... PS I had two partials luckily and coming back is more about confidence of being able to go full bore... Look at Jack Quinn of the Sabres. He did tore his training over the summer, his basically taking him a year and a half to be fully confident, but his speed is back.

 

I'm sure you coming back from your job is much different than playing in the NFL, most likely 2 different animals. I have no doubt he can come back to the NFL it just doesn't seem likely he'll have the same speed, explosion etc when he does or at least that's what I seem to see with alot of other guys in all different sports who've had this type of injury although Jack Quinn of the Sabres seems to be getting that speed back and he tore his but it took almost 2 seasons for him to finally start looking like himself at the start of this year which is encouraging.

[oldmanfan]

Damn shame, he was playing really well.  I suspect we’ll see Jackson now on the active roster, and either him, Groot, or Epenesa fill the hybrid role that Hoecht had.  

[PauleeeWalnuts]

9 hours ago, JerseyBills said:

Brutal 

I hope Beane is hyper aggressive at the trade deadline

Eagles yes, Beane not so much. 

[GroteStreet]

11 hours ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

 

Michael Hoecht

Buffalo Bill

October 26, 2025 to November 2, 2025

 

You made an impact while you were here for your 8 quarters. You will be missed.

 

…F***!

 

 

He can be back next year.  This is not career ending.

12 hours ago, Success said:

 

I mean, we've lost one key player for the season - Hoecht.  Oliver will likely be back for the playoffs. We lost Happ, but he really wasn't playing well.

 

VERY few teams get through the season without losing a key player.  We're not remotely close to "too much to overcome" territory right now.

 

Yes that is true, every teams lose a key player to injury.  I have been a Bills fan for 45 years and am pessimistic by nature. 

[RkFast]

9 minutes ago, GroteStreet said:

Yes that is true, every teams lose a key player to injury.  I have been a Bills fan for 45 years and am pessimistic by nature. 

 

This is why I always handwave the discussions about "next year" when it always turns to "the team will be better because [so and so] will be back from injury." But then "next year" someone else will be injured. You cant escape it. There are injuries in all sports of course but its so much more prevalent in this league, just due to the nature of the game.  

Edited 6 hours ago by RkFast

[T master]

THIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS !!! 

 

He brought so much fire to the rest of the D his infectious attitude was present on the field and then him not leaving the sideline and staying to pump the rest of the guys up just showed what kind of a leader he is and would have been through out the rest of the season .

 

I hope he comes to each game for the rest of the season to give the guys a jolt when they need it weather it be when they are up or down in the games coming up he is the energy this D was missing in previous games and showed it in the 2 games he played it was like a totally different unit when he hit the field !! 

 

Terrible lose !! 

[dollars 2 donuts]

1 hour ago, GroteStreet said:

He can be back next year.  This is not career ending.

 

 

Absolutely, Grote, but man it is such a tough one for linemen/pass rushers to come back from.

 

Cheated...I feel cheated.  

 

Of course not by Michael, but rather by the football gods.

 

How they laugh at us...b@st@rds.

 

 

[machine gun kelly]

4 minutes ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

 

Absolutely, Grote, but man it is such a tough one for linemen/pass rushers to come back from.

 

Cheated...I feel cheated.  

 

Of course not by Michael, but rather by the football gods.

 

How they laugh at us...b@st@rds.

 

 

Donuts, I echo your frustration between Oliver last week and Hoecht this week.  Ugghh!  I still think we can make an impact.  As the general said to the Patriot (Mel Gibson movie), Stay the Course!

[RkFast]

Im looking at it that losing Hoecht is not really a "loss" because with only 7 quarters of games played, he really wasnt "here" to begin with. Its more like "what could have been."

[Sojourner]

1 hour ago, GroteStreet said:

He can be back next year.  This is not career ending.

Yes that is true, every teams lose a key player to injury.  I have been a Bills fan for 45 years and am pessimistic by nature. 

Big loss. Think if Bosa gets bigger offers we would have been a-ok with him filling in that place. I hope Bosa comes back but for Hoechy coming back from that Achilles injury to be an immediate impact might be tough

2 minutes ago, RkFast said:

Im looking at it that losing Hoecht is not really a "loss" because with only 7 quarters of games played, he really wasnt "here" to begin with. Its more like "what could have been."

That’s a fair evaluation but the guy was making a huge difference when he was in. Relentless and controlled. Think it’s someone we are going to be counting as a loss at some portion down the road sadly. Hopefully it’s not an impact in the playoffs if we get there. 

[Dillenger4]

8 minutes ago, RkFast said:

Im looking at it that losing Hoecht is not really a "loss" because with only 7 quarters of games played, he really wasnt "here" to begin with. Its more like "what could have been."

He was a monster for us yesterday and last week. Bosa get's through because of Hoecht.

This is a massive loss for the Bills.

[BADOLBILZ]

4 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

Im thinking poor stretching habits and possibly hydration during the game..

 

 

Anabolic roids are believed to interfere with collagen distribution.   Which of course is what tendons are made of.   It's the stereotypical thing for a roid user to pop achilles tendons.   By the time he gets back on the field,  after being subject to more frequent testing for the better part of 18 months,  he probably returns a husk of the player we saw the last two weeks.    As a Yankee fan we saw it with A-Rod after his last roid bust.  The residual gain from juicing can be there for about a year but then it goes fast.

[dave mcbride]

2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

And those were 10 and 20 years ago.

 

Medicine is better now.  Jason Tatum and Haliburton both tore their Achilles last year, both really on very quick twitch speed.

They'll be fine when healthy.

Brandon Graham tore his achilles in 2021 and had 11 sacks in 2022.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, GroteStreet said:

He can be back next year.  This is not career ending.

 

No doubt with a handsome contract extension.

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

His usage and positional responsibility was the thing that changed this defense. I don’t think it was necessarily all him but the guy was a monster. We need to get a guy to fill that role and ask them to do the same. I think whatever that gave us was changing the entire defense in a positive way. Stand a guy up like that and use him the same way. There must be a LB that we can trade for with a similar skill set