ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — There are 91 players on the Buffalo Bills roster right now. There are names you know like Josh Allen, there are names you’ll probably come to know and love like any of the incoming draft class, and there are other names you maybe, kinda, sorta recognize.
Trent Sherfield Sr. falls into that last bucket. If you’re a Bills fan, you should remember him for a toe-tapping catch on a tipped throw to help clinch the Bills an AFC East title in 2023 in week 18 against the Miami Dolphins. That might be it. Now in 2026, he’s hoping to make a second first impression.
“I’ma be very candid and transparent. I think my perspective that year was really off,” Sherfield said. “I think it was just a little bit more like immature in my thinking, as opposed to, coming in and having the gratitude to have the opportunity to play and be on this team and perform well.”
It showed in his game. He had 11 catches for 86 yards, a down year, but one that Sherfield says was necessary. The season prior, he had a career season, boasting 417 yards with the Miami Dolphins.
“It’s like, man, here you are. Speaking on ’23, year six, six straight years of being undrafted, making the team, being on different teams, that your work is paying off, right? I should have had that mindset,” Sherfield said. “Falling in love with the process as opposed to attaching my work to results.”
For all the adverse thoughts he has of his 2023 self, however, it’s true that Sherfield has been the epitome of a grinder. Entering the league as an undrafted free agent, Sherfield found a niche with the Arizona Cardinals, carved out a role and is entering year nine, having played with seven different franchises. It’s almost like hard work is in his DNA.
“I’ve literally worked since I was 15,” said Tedrone Gouard.
EXTENDED INTERVIEW | Trent SherfieldThat’s Tedrone, Trent’s mom. She had him when she was only 16, but she admits there’s been some help.
“I do remember when he first started with football. He was scared, scared to get hit,” Tedrone recalled laughing. “So I sent him outside with my youngest brother, and I told him I was like, just run him over. Just keep running him over until he’s not afraid anymore.”
That “baptism by fire”-like training worked, or at the very least, Trent kept playing and by eighth grade, help from outside the family came into the picture.
“It was funny, man,” Trent said. “He was our middle school basketball coach.”
Trent’s talking about DaJuan Gouard, a Loyola Chicago great and longtime professional basketball player overseas.
“I would run with him. I would train with him. I would lift with him. I would do everything. Actually in my head, I was still preparing to play professional basketball,” DaJuan said.
Instead, DaJuan effectively became Trent’s personal coach, playing hoops, running routes and sprinting hills. At least on one occasion, the two planned to run 15 sets of hills, Trent tried to hit the eject button.
“He ran eight of them and said, all right, I’m going to come back tomorrow and do the rest and I go, buddy, that ain’t going cut it,” DaJuan said.
That intensity was incumbent for Trent and Tedrone.
“I always told Trent, I was like, dude, I can’t afford to send you to college,” Tedrone said. “You got to be the best you can at it.”
But by early high school, earning a scholarship to play ball, let alone playing for the Buffalo Bills, felt far-fetched until a fateful conversation between Trent and DaJuan.
“My stepdad, he was literally just like, you’re not working hard enough,” Trent said.
Yeah…DaJuan, the coach, eventually became DaJuan, the stepdad.
“[Trent] was kinda like, “what’s DaJuan doing over here?” And then he just kinda rolled with it,” Tedrone admitted.
DaJuan and Tedrone got married during Trent’s sophomore year of college and any reservations Trent had were short-lived.
“He’s just been a blessing, man, because without him, I don’t know if I’m sitting here today,” Sherfield said of his NFL career.
Although Trent is now catching passes from Josh Allen now, his stepdad isn’t ready to say good job just yet.
“I’m waiting for retirement,” DaJuan said. “I’m waiting for another 4 or 5 years for him to retire. And we wrap this thing up before I give him his flowers totally.”
But even DaJuan can admit the path from unrecruited to Vanderbilt to undrafted to nearly a decade in the NFL is admirable.
“At one point, he was a quarterback and I was his wide receiver,” DaJuan said. “So running too many routes at that age. To do all of that stuff with him and see where he’s at now. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
Tedrone, who raised him since she was 16, doesn’t really want the credit, even though she probably deserve a lot. Instead, she wants Trent’s story to be a roadmap for others.
“I just want people to realize that, yeah, he’s from a small town. If he can put in the hard work and dedication, like your kid can do it too,” Tedrone said.
Trent Sherfield is a grinder. He chops wood and carries water. He plays on the third unit.
“Being that guy on special teams,” Sherfield said.
He’s been known as a playmaker at times.
“Excited to go out and contribute and make plays,” Sherfield said.
This time around in Buffalo, the story isn’t over for Trent Sherfield Sr., committed to outwork everyone, including his former self, because that’s all he knows how to do.
“Just chop wood and carry water,” Sherfield said.
The Bills will wrap up their OTA portion of the schedule on June 11 before taking over a month off until Training Camp begins at St. John Fisher in July.
CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER | How Trent Sherfield went from undrafted to nine-year vet WHEC.com.
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