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6 things to know about new Bills DL Poona Ford

nick wojton
·3 min read
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Here are six things to know about Poona Ford, the defensive tackle who signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills:

It's just a nickname

Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Poona is just a nickname. His name is actually Kaylon Ford Jr.

According to Austin American-Statesman, his mom used to call him “Pooh Bear,” after the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh. As he got older, it evolved into Poona and stuck.

Wears his "shortcomings" on his sleeve

Ford went undrafted at the 2018 NFL draft and is now a mainstay in the NFL. So why did he go undrafted? As can be an oft-case in the league: Size.

Ford listed at 5-foot-11 and just over 300 pounds coming out of Texas. But the knocks over his size and UDFA status is something he wears on his sleeve and uses as motivation.

His pinned tweet on Twitter is below:

Why he was still a free agent

Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Ford has had NFL success but he was still on the market for a reason. The 2022 season was likely his worst in the pros.

Ford posted a career-low 56.2 overall grade on Pro Football Focus, down from 73.0 the previous year. So what happened? Pete Carroll happened.

The Seattle Seahawks head coach admitted that he used Ford wrong all of last season. Per Seahawks Wire, Seattle changed his position from his nose tackle role to one more positioned as a three-tech.

With the Bills, expect him to play something more similar to that nose tackle spot. He’ll be at one-tech with DaQuan Jones.

Look for his 'media face'

We’ll find out eventually how Ford interacts in interviews. But he has a “resting media face.”

His words, not ours. Someone pointed out to him once on Twitter that Ford has an angry face when being asked questions… and they aren’t wrong.

But Ford had some fun with it anyway:

Started football extra early

Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

It’s remarkable how new Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid was a first-round pick despite only playing football for the first time his senior year of high school. Ford is on the opposite end of that spectrum.

In his hometown of Hilton Head, SC, he started playing before the age limit.

“My first [football] memory?” Ford told Sports Illustrated. “That I played football when I was six when the age limit was seven.”

Mom motivates

Ford revealed that a moment in his life that shaped him was his senior year of high school. At that young age, his mom discovered she had cancer.

He spoke with SI about how tough of a chapter in life that was.

“My mom got cancer around my senior season in high school and it was really just… It was really unexpected, number one, and I didn’t really know how to handle it, honestly,” Ford said. “I would just try to always be there for her. When she would go through chemo, I would just be in there, sitting with her, and we would just be talking and stuff. It just motivated me more to achieve my goals and just be successful for her.”

Ford previously dedicated his “My Cause, My Cleats” footwear to breast cancer awareness:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5taQu_Bgrv/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=cd7ac028-7129-417f-abbb-8197ee84b78e

Story originally appeared on Bills Wire