The Buffalo Bills placed defensive tackle John McCargo on the injured reserve list Friday, ending his season and probably ending his career with the team.
McCargo has been bothered by a bulging disk in his back. He was inactive the past two weeks and three of the past four games for the Bills.
“It’s been kind of gradually bothering him more,” coach Dick Jauron said after Friday’s practice. “We just thought it was aggravating him enough that we needed to get him out of practice. It’s just gotten more and more irritating to him, and he’s tried to work through it.”
To fill McCargo’s spot on the roster, the Bills promoted rookie tight end Jonathan Stupar from the practice squad. Stupar, 6-foot-3 and 254 pounds, is from the University of Virginia.
McCargo, the 26th overall pick in the 2006 draft, has been bothered by injuries in his three NFL seasons and has not performed to the satisfaction of Bills coaches.
The Bills tried to trade him to Indianapolis for a fourth-round pick in mid-October, but the Colts voided the deal after McCargo failed their physical due to his disk problem.
McCargo returned to the Bills and appeared in three of the next six games. Overall, he was inactive in four out of 11 games and averaged only about 10 snaps a game in the others. McCargo is signed for two more years, through 2010, but he was eager to get a change of scenery when he was traded, and it would be a surprise if the Bills brought him back next year.
McCargo broke his foot five games into his rookie season, and he needed two surgeries to fix it, which slowed the start of his 2007 season. He did show some flashes of play-making ability at times the second half of last season. But he was not consistent enough to satisfy the coaches.
The Bills traded up to get McCargo in the draft, essentially giving up a third-round pick (73rd overall). They gave Chicago their second-round pick (42nd) for the right to move up to No. 26.
