By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

97. Alan Branch – Signed by the Bills in 2013

Alan Branch had an NFL career that lasted 11 seasons, but only one of them was with the Bills. He only has himself to blame for that.

Branch was big and fast as a youngster. Not many defensive tackles in high school return kicks, but Branch did. That led to a good college career at Michigan, as well as becoming the second-round draft pick of Arizona in 2007. Branch jumped to Seattle in 2011, where he became a starter for the next two seasons.

The lineman moved on to Buffalo in 2013, signing a one-year contract for $3 million. Branch had no sacks for the Bills, but at 6-foot-6, 350 pounds, he could plug the middle of the line. Buffalo signed him to a three-year extension. What could go wrong? Plenty. Branch was arrested on a DUI charge in August, 2014, and cut almost immediately.  He soon signed with the Patriots, where he played for four more seasons.

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)

Budd Bailey

Budd Bailey has been involved in almost every aspect of the local sports scene for the last 40 years. He worked for WEBR Radio, the Buffalo Sabres' public relations department and The Buffalo News during that time. In that time he covered virtually every aspect of the area's sports world, from high schools to the Bills and Sabres and everything in between. Along the way, Budd served as a play-by-play announcer for the Bisons, an analyst for the Stallions, and a talk-show host. He won the National Lacrosse League's Tom Borrelli Award as the media personality of the year in 2011, and was a finalist for that same award in 2017. Budd's seventh and eighth books, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and the other about Ichiro Suzuki, are scheduled to be released in the fall.

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