As sports fans, many of us can relate to throwing a football or baseball in the backyard pretending to be playing for our hometown team. Joe Andreessen grew up as one of those kids imagining playing for his hometown Buffalo Bills and in 2024 the Linebacker from Depew, New York has turned that dream into a reality.

Lone Wolf 

Joe Andreessen’s journey to the NFL began at Lancaster High School. Here he played middle linebacker and running back, racking up 92 total tackles and five and a half sacks and over 400 rushing yards in just 12 games his senior season. Despite these impressive numbers and being ranked 5th at his position in the state  and top 400 nationally, he received just one offer to play Division one football at the next level from Bryant College. 

At Bryant he continued to shine. In 2022, his last season playing for the Bulldogs, he broke the school’s single season record for tackles with 116 and was top five in the nation in tackles for a loss per game. 

In his last year of eligibility, he transferred back home to the University of Buffalo were he continued turning heads, leading the team in tackles with 90, with two forced fumbles. 

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Andreessen declared for the 2024 NFL draft after his season at Buffalo, but would go undrafted. His hometown Bills would give him his first taste of NFL action through the team’s local tryout, where he made the teams pre season roster.  

In the preseason,  Andreessen turned heads racking up 24 tackles and leading the team in tackles in a pre-season game against the Steelers. After a second solid performance against the Panthers in the last game of the pre-season, he was named to the NFL’s all pre-season team. 

With such a strong showing, Andreessen was named to the Bills 53-man roster in late August. Now he will be playing for the team he grew up rooting for. 

Impact 

“I think a lot of my life has been proving people wrong  about what they say about my play,” he told buffalorumblings.com “But  things like this ( tribute video) shows there are a lot of people to prove right too.”

Oftentimes, in our journey to success, we can get caught up in all of the people who doubt us. While that might add short term fuel to our fire, the really important people are the onces we can impact who believe in us at every step of the way. Check out the awesome reaction of Andreessen’s high school team when they found out he made the roster!

Who are you going to prove right when you reach your goals?