ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Edge rusher Bradley Chubb faced the Bills enough during his three-plus seasons in Miami to have several reasons to want to sign with Buffalo.
The team has been a consistent winner. And it has Josh Allen.
“I’m trying to win. I’m going to go through a season where I’m not frustrated every Monday coming into the building and upset, like, ‘Hey, man, we should have did this. We should’ve did that,’” Chubb said during a Zoom call Thursday after signing his three-year contract with Buffalo.
“Playing this team for three-and-a-half years, you see that they know how to win. They believe in themselves to win,” he added, before referring to Allen by his jersey number. “And we got a guy like 17 running the show. It’s hard to feel like you’re not going to win, you know?”
Chubb knows. And so does Buffalo’s other major offseason addition, receiver D.J. Moore, who was acquired in a trade with Chicago.
“He’s a field general,” Moore said of Allen. “You see him out there trying to conduct things, and the way he does it is successful. And I just want to be part of that.”
Limited as the Bills were by the salary cap, general manager Brandon Beane addressed two key needs for a team in transition following coach Sean McDermott’s firing in January. Buffalo still has the core of a group that’s reached the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons.
The 28-year-old Moore has topped 1,100 yards receiving in four of his eight seasons, and upgrades a group of receivers that had difficulty getting open last year.
The 29-year-old Chubb, when healthy, has the potential to muscle up Buffalo’s middling pass rush for new head coach Joe Brady and new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard.
Chubb is familiar enough with Buffalo to know the team’s shortcomings.
There’s the Bills' failure to reach the Super Bowl, which led to McDermott’s firing. And there’s also the perception that Buffalo leans too much on Allen.
“I feel like the talk in the past was the offense go out there and put up how many points, and the defense don’t lose the game,” Chubb said. “Now we’re trying to be aggressive on defense and set the tone. And I feel like that’s what they brought me here to do, set the tone.”
Chubb has a history of injuries. He’s played 10 or more games in a season just four times and missed all of 2024 with a torn knee ligament.
He said it took him about a fifth of the way through last season to feel fully healthy. He finished with 8 1/2 sacks.
“I know what I can do. I know what I have left in the tank,” said Chubb, who hopes to exceed the career-best 12 sacks he had as a rookie in 2018 with Denver.
“I feel I’m going to hit my stride and this is going to be the perfect place to do it,” he added.
Moore is eager to reconnect with Brady, who was the Panthers' offensive coordinator during two of the receiver’s more productive seasons in Carolina.
“He said, ‘Get ready. Get ready to run,’” Moore said of his first conversation with Brady in Buffalo. “That’s what he told me when I was in Carolina, so he told me the same thing now. So I’m just ready for it.”
Though Moore’s production dropped in his final year in Chicago, he left the Bears on a high note by making his NFL playoff debut. Chicago beat Green Bay in the wild-card round before losing to the Los Angeles Rams.
“I look forward to getting back there with the Bills and going further,” Moore said.
The Bills agreed to sign safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson to a one-year contract, his agent Kevin Conner said Thursday. Gardner-Johnson played three games with Houston last season, his fifth team in seven years.
He projects to fill a depth need, though the Bills have an opening after releasing starter Taylor Rapp.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
FILE - Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore runs after making a catch against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half of an NFL football divisional playoff game, Jan. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
FILE - Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Bradley Chubb (2), now linebacker for the Buffalo Bills, prepares to play against the New York Jets in an NFL football game on Dec. 7, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Olin Chamberlain will have the Oklahoma City Thunder game on TV and his phone nearby, just as he does any time one of his uncle’s NBA records is getting challenged.
The family group chat tends to blow up a bit each time Wilt Chamberlain – that’s “Uncle Dippy” to Olin and others close to the late Hall of Famer – might have another record toppled.
The latest instance comes Thursday night when reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attempts against Boston to make it 127 straight games with at least 20 points. Chamberlain holds the record of 126 games from 1961 to 1963 — he even scored at least 20 points every game of the 1961-62 season for the Philadelphia Warriors.
Rooting on Gilgeous-Alexander from his Philadelphia home, 50-year-old Olin — his father, Oliver was Wilt's brother — has taken an active interest in keeping Chamberlain's legacy alive, including through a memorial scholarship fund. If one record falls, no worries, Olin says. There are about five dozen more NBA records that belong to Chamberlain.
“He has so many that one won’t affect it,” Olin Chamberlain said with a laugh. “He left such a legacy.”
Turns out, today's NBA stars are doing just fine keeping Chamberlain's name in the headlines.
Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in a game has stood since 1962.
Miami's Bam Adebayo scored 83 points, setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game, Tuesday night against Washington. That again put Chamberlain — 53 years after he played his last season — and his achievements at the forefront of the NBA. Kobe Bryant is No. 3 on the list with 81.
“Wilt, me, then Kobe, which sounds crazy,” Adebayo said.
Chamberlain's family remained proud of all that Wilt achieved on and off the court.
Michelle Smith, one of Chamberlain’s nieces, noted that the former 76ers star enjoyed getting involved in the community and never turned down an autograph request. She also believed that — unlike some former greats who want to stay cemented in the record book forever — that her uncle would be rooting hard for Gilgeous-Alexander to set the 20-point record and for others to continue to challenge that 100-point milestone.
“His name is there already. It's a chance for somebody to come up and break a record and be known to break his records,” said Smith, whose 90-year-old mother Selena was Wilt’s sister. "They feel good about it, as well. They made him like a God in basketball, so when people break his records, they feel some kind of way. They feel great like, 'Oh yeah, I'm up next to Wilt now.'"
Most of Chamberlain's records are still insurmountable in the modern NBA.
Just a few scoring records that seem untouchable: most points per game in a season (50.4 in 1961–62); most 50-point games in a season (45 in 1961–62); most career regular-season 60-point games (32); and most career regular-season 50-point games (118).
“When people begin to speak about Wilt, they just can't believe all that he accomplished,” said Chamberlain's friend and 76ers' executive advisor to the CEO, Sonny Hill. “He never gets his just due. It's almost like he just scored 100 points. Well, 100 points is not the greatest thing that he did. He had a season where he averaged 50.”
The 89-year-old Hill — who called his friend “Dip,” — met Chamberlain when they were 12 years old playing in the Philadelphia Baptist Church league. Hill compared Chamberlain to a Paul Bunyon-type, a mythical figure in sports in large part because there's little video of his playing heyday. Much like the moon landing, even Chamberlain's 100-point game has been doubted because of the era it happened — though there is a radio broadcast of that night in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Hill said he was pleased that games like Adebayo had or streaks like Gilgeous-Alexander is on happen because it raises Chamberlain's profile to a younger generation.
“It's another way of saying, well there was a Wilt Chamberlain,” Hill said.
Yet, some of Chamberlain's records have hit the hardwood. Notably of late, Joel Embiid set the 76ers' scoring record with 70 points in January 2024. Chamberlain's record of 68 points had stood since Dec. 16, 1967.
“Wilt never did this?” Embiid said in astonishment after the game.
Up next, a record Gilgeous-Alexander has chased since he dropped 30 points in a Nov. 1, 2024, game against Portland.
“It keeps the Big Fella's legacy alive when people get close to a record or even break a record,” Olin Chamberlain said. “I'm not one of those people that says, hey, I don't want to see anything broken. Don't get me wrong, that 100-point game, that's a legacy record. But the game is changing, these guys want to see their peers in the record books.”
Smith will keep tabs on the family chat where she says with a laugh her cousins “bust it up and take it to another level.” It's one where they root on Adebayo and Gilgeous-Alexander and all the rest who chase Chamberlain's records and a treasure chest full of his unbelievable feats.
“We are so proud to have that legacy because everyone doesn't,” Smith said. “To continue to just have him not being forgotten is key. His legacy and who he was is and who he was is still out there. People are still talking about him and want to still talk about him and know about him. That's the key.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
FILE - Philadelphia Warriors' Wilt Chamberlain holds a sign reading, "100," in the dressing room after he scored 100 points against the New York Knickerbockers, March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)
