- Bills receiver Zay Jones has been activated off the active/non-football injury list, but was wearing a red contact jersey during his first day back at practice, tweets Joe Buscaglia of WKBW. Jones underwent knee surgery in May and missed Buffalo’s offseason program, but the club has expressed hope that Jones — who was selected in the second round of the 2017 draft — will be ready for the regular season. After an offseason which included not only an operation but a bizarre arrest, the Bills have been adamant that Jones won’t be handed a starting spot. Buffalo’s wideout depth chart is among the worst in the league, though, so it will be surprising if Jones isn’t lining up opposite Kelvin Benjamin as the Bills’ No. 2 pass-catcher.
Today’s minor moves:
Buffalo Bills
- Waived: WR Quan Bray
Kansas City Chiefs
- Claimed off waivers: C Jack Allen
- Waived/injured: C Tejan Koroma
New Orleans Saints
- Re-signed: S Rickey Jefferson, TE John Phillips
- Waived/injured: OL John Fullington
- Waived from injured reserve: WR Eldridge Massington, WR Josh Smith
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: G Chris Gonzalez
- Waived: S Corey Griffin
- Bills defensive tackle Adolphus Washington may be in roster trouble, Joe Buscaglia of WKBW writes. The 2016 third-round pick has been struggling in practice while the team has given Harrison Phillips work at Washington’s three-technique position. Bills GM Brandon Beane hasn’t been shy about jettisoning players from the old regime, so Buscaglia wonders if Washington could go on the trade block between now and September. It’s not quite clear what the Bills could fetch for Washington, however, given uneven performance over the last two years.
- The Bills‘ new look offensive line is long on experience but may be short on talent, Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle writes. The Bills are coming into 2018 without Cordy Glenn, Eric Wood, and Richie Incognito, three players who have started a combined 347 games and made five Pro Bowls. Of the Bills’ current 15 linemen, they have zero Pro Bowlers or even players that have been considered for a Pro Bowl.
Second-year Bills GM Brandon’s Beane went through a lot to trade up and land Josh Allen, making two deals — with the Bengals and Buccaneers — to vault the Bills into that No. 7 spot.
When asked about his first-round quarterback’s chances of earning earlier-than-expected playing time, Beane said it could come down to how he looks in the Bills’ first preseason game.
“I think you give everybody the fair amount of reps now. Right now we’re going with Nathan (Peterman) and A.J. (McCarron) with the majority of the ones and twos, but giving Josh at least a period a day – at least,” Beane said, via John Kryk of the Toronto Sun. “And we’ll do that through the first preseason game, and then we’ll adjust from there and decide, Are we going to keep it the same? Are we going to give him more reps? Or are we going to give him less? Everything is earned here.”
Buffalo snapped major North American sports’ longest playoff drought last season by booking the AFC’s No. 6 seed in dramatic fashion, and that progress may impact the team’s quarterback decision.
Although the Bills’ offense will look remarkably different, given that Tyrod Taylor and three key offensive linemen are out of the picture, last year’s work may prompt the GM and coaching staff to go with one of the veteran signal-callers while the Wyoming-produced prodigy observes to start the season.
“Some people say, ‘Hey, don’t play a rookie at all.’ And some people say go ahead and play him no matter what,” Beane said. “And I think the thing is you’ve got to be fair to the other – when you get your 53-man roster – the other 52 players. Because everybody wants to win now, including Sean (McDermott) and I. And so (the players) see the same practice. They watch the same practices; they’ll watch the same preseason games. And if you’re not putting the best guy out there I think they’re going to lose their respect for you.”
Beane said he will be involved in the decision, along with McDermott and new OC Brian Daboll. Ownership will not steer the team one way or another in this matter, per Beane. Daboll last served as an NFL coordinator for the 2012 Chiefs, who went 2-14, but he served as national champion Alabama’s OC last season.
“It will be a group decision,” Beane said. “There’s Sean and I. We’ll obviously talk. There’s Brian Daboll. He’ll be involved. He knows more than everybody who’s hitting everything. He’s in every meeting with these quarterbacks. It’s his offense.
“… We’ll talk to (owners Terry and Kim Pegula) about the evaluation process. ‘Hey, this is what A.J. did well in Game 1 … this is what he’s got to improve on.’ Or, ‘This is what Josh did what, and what he’s got to improve on.’ And same with Nathan. So, yeah, we’ll definitely talk.”
Despite his five-interception disaster in Los Angeles last season, Peterman showed well in minicamp. McCarron would seemingly be the best bet for veteran stability, but Allen’s displayed improvement in training camp. Allen was viewed as a longer project than peers Josh Rosen or Sam Darnold coming into the draft.
“(Allen) was behind, being in the draft, whereas both A.J. and Nate were already learning Brian Daboll’s system a month-plus before Josh got there,” Beane told Kryk regarding Allen’s summer progression. “But definitely, by the time we left there in June he was mentally there. Now it’s just catching him up physically, knowing all the plays – it’s a big playbook – and getting the guys lined up. But he has done a great job to this point.”
The Bills have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent defensive end Ryan Russell, reports Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (Twitter link).
Buffalo has been interested in Russell for some time, as the club visited with the veteran lineman in May before bringing him in for another visit on Saturday. That’s been the only known league-wide interest in Russell, whom the Buccaneers allowed to hit the open market in the spring after opting not to tender him as a restricted free agent.
Russell, a fifth-round pick in the 2015, draft, appeared in 14 games and made six starts for the Buccaneers a season ago in a campaign that was his most active to date. The 26-year-old played on 456 defensive snaps for Tampa Bay (nearly triple his career snap count to that point), managing two sacks and 12 tackles in that time. Russell also chipped on special teams, seeing action on roughly 20% of the Bucs’ ST snaps.
The Bills had been on the lookout for defensive line help, as they worked out former Bronco Jared Crick before inking Russell while also signing interior defender John Hughes. Russell, for his part, will compete for reserve snaps behind Jerry Hughes, Trent Murphy, and Shaq Lawson.
In order to create a roster spot for Russell, Buffalo has waived defensive end Owa Odighizuwa, the club announced.
- Embattled Bills DE Shaq Lawson could be on his way out of Buffalo, but DC Leslie Frazier isn’t casting him aside just yet. Frazier said Lawson’s best football is ahead of him, and that he is much too young to say that 2018 is a make-or-break year (via Joe Buscaglia of WKBW on Twitter). However, as Mike Rodak of ESPN.com tweets, Frazier also refers to Trent Murphy as the team’s starting left end, which is further evidence that Lawson has ground to make up if he wants to remain a Bill.
The Bills continue to examine options for their defensive line. This means a second offseason trip to Buffalo for UFA defensive end Ryan Russell.
A former Buccaneers contributor who started six games last season, Russell is visiting the Bills on Saturday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Russell made the trip to western New York in March as well, but the parties moved on without a contract in place.
Buffalo brought in Jared Crick for a workout this week as well and signed defensive tackle John Hughes, with Rapoport noting the Bills are on the lookout for D-line aid.
A former Cowboys fifth-round pick in 2015, Russell played in one game with Dallas but suited up for 14 with Tampa Bay the past two seasons.
- Josh Allen‘s been the best Bills quarterback in camp thus far, Joe Buscaglia of WKBW observes. The raw Wyoming-honed talent outshined A.J. McCarron and Nathan Peterman on Saturday, per Buscaglia. Both of the older QBs are believed to be competing for Buffalo’s Week 1 job, with Allen believed to be set to watch as his career begins.
John Hughes has found a home. The Bills announced (via Twitter) that they have signed the veteran defensive tackle to a one-year deal.
The 30-year-old has managed to put together a six-year career despite serving as mostly a backup. The 2012 third-round pick spent the first four-plus seasons of his career with the Browns, including a rookie season where he collected three sacks. However, he was released by the organization in 2016, less than two years after inking a four-year, $14.4MM extension.
He split the rest of that campaign with the Patriots and Buccaneers before signing with the Saints last year. In eight games last season, the six-foot-two, 320-pound lineman compiled 10 tackles. He tore his bicep late in the season, landing him on the injured reserve.
Kyle Williams and Star Lotulelei are currently slotted in as the Bills starting defensive tackles, and Buffalo has some solid depth behind the two veterans. Hughes will likely have to compete with rookie third-rounder Harrison Phillips, former third-rounder Adolphus Washington, free agent addition Tenny Palepoi, and second-year lineman Rickey Hatley for backup reps.
Either way, it sounds like the Bills were in the market for more depth at the position. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets that the organization also considered free agent defensive tackle Tyrunn Walker. The 28-year-old was more production last season, finishing with 22 tackles, one sack, and four passes defended in 16 games (four starts) for the Rams. However, the organization ultimately decided on Hughes, who Rapoport describes as “more of a space eater.”
The Bills recently worked out free agent running back Orleans Darkwa, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Darkwa, who last played for the Giants, is now back to full health after having a plate removed from his leg. 
Because of his medical issues, Darkwa hasn’t drawn a ton of interest in free agency so far, though he did visit the Patriots in April. The Giants reportedly had some level of interest in re-signing him, but he was left out in the cold after they drafted Saquon Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick and signed veteran Jonathan Stewart. The crosstown Jets were also eyeing Darkwa at one point, but signed Isaiah Crowell and Thomas Rawls.
Darkwa, who is still only 26, ran for 751 yards off of 171 carries, giving him a 4.4 yards per carry average. It was an ugly year for the Giants on the whole, but Darkwa excelled on a personal level.
The Bills, of course, have some potential needs at running back as LeSean McCoy‘s situation lingers. Outside of McCoy, the Bills have Chris Ivory, Travaris Cadet, and Taiwan Jones, and that’s not a tremendous bunch.