Jake Metz makes it with the Bills
Souderton Area grad headed to Buffalo
The Souderton Area grad signed a contract with the Bills on Friday, the announcement made by Metz’s former team, the Arena League Champion Philadelphia Soul.
After playing for the Eagles last preseason, Jake Metz’s NFL dreams have him headed northwest to Buffalo.
The Souderton Area grad signed a contract with the Bills on Friday, the announcement made by Metz’s former team, the Arena League Champion Philadelphia Soul.
“I am excited to build off of my preseason experience with the Philadelphia Eagles last summer,” Metz said on Friday. “I am very grateful to the Soul organization for pushing me to succeed and believing in me these past two years.”
The 6-foot-6, 265-pound defensive lineman filled a huge role for the Soul on their path to the title.
“On behalf of the entire Soul organization, I wish Jake the very best of luck with the Bills,” said Soul head coach Clint Dolezel. “He works hard day in and day out. His dedication to the game and will to work is what makes him such a valuable player.
“This is a great opportunity for him,” Dolezel said, “and I am honored to have coached him the past two years.”
In two years with the Soul (2015-16), Metz racked up 29.5 total tackles and 7.5 sacks. His swarming style also resulted in three pass break-ups and a pair of forced fumbles.
He was awarded the Arena Football League’s Defensive Lineman of the Year and was First Team All-Arena for his performance last season.
In the biggest game of the year, Metz was key. The defensive lineman created and recovered a key fumble during the Soul’s 56-42 victory over the Arizona Rattlers in the 2016 Arena Bowl.
Metz was once a standout at Division II Shippensburg University and before that, was a romping, stomping force in his playing days at Souderton Area.
“Jake was one of those guys that went a hundred miles an hour,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said of Metz last August. “He would run through a wall. He was 6-foot-5, 190 pounds his senior year, so you knew he had room to grow. Once he got to Shipp, things really started to take off for him.”
Metz left Shippensburg as the program’s all-time sack leader with 30.5 sacks and was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2013. In 2012, he broke the single-season school record for sacks with 11.5 and was awarded AP All-America Second Team Honors.
He worked out previously with the Eagles back in 2012 before signing with them in the 2016 preseason.
From Big Red to the blue and red...
The 2009 Souderton Area grad will join another local product in Buffalo, playing under new head coach Sean McDermott, the former Eagles defensive coordinator from La Salle College High School.