Getty Darron Lee comes onto the field during his time with the Kansas City Chiefs
The Buffalo Bills officially signed former Ohio State Buckeye and first round pick Darron Lee to their practice squad on Monday.
We’ve signed LB Darron Lee to the practice squad and released LB Ahmad Gooden.
TE Nate Becker has been activated from the COVID List and returns to the practice squad: t.co/biTqWxFFfT
The signing comes on the heels of the Bills taking down the New England Patriots on Sunday, 24-21, and the former New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs linebacker seemed pretty excited to be coming to Buffalo.
“Brandon (Beane) is always looking at ways we can improve and Darron has played some snaps in the league obviously,” McDermott said during Monday’s press conference. “He has some skill that we want to take a longer look at to see if it fits us and that’s all I can say at this point.”
Last week NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Lee was visiting Buffalo and was expected to sign with the Bills after going through his physical and covid-19 protocols.
Lee was the 20th overall pick by the New York Jets in the 2016 NFL Draft. He also won the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs last season.
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A Troubled NFL Career
Lee didn’t play during the Chiefs postseason run in 2019 but he did start two of their 16 regular season games and tallied eight tackles against the Houston Texans in his second start of the year. After not re-signing with the Super Bowl champions in the offseason, Lee was suspended in September for the first four games of the 2020 NFL season, according to a tweet from ESPN NFL Insider Field Yates.
This was the second suspension of Lee’s career. According to Pro Football Rumors, Lee was suspended four games in December of the 2018 season after violating the leagues substance abuse policy. He had started all 12 games for the New York Jets that season and recorded 74 tackles and three interceptions.
Before his suspension, he was set to top a sophomore season in which he had 94 total tackles, three sacks and nine tackles for a loss. The Jets traded him to the Chiefs ahead of the 2019 season.
A Former Buckeye
Lee was one of those hometown heroes in college. He grew up just outside of Columbus in New Albany, OH and went to high school at New Albany High. In a Bleacher Report article from 2015, Ben Axelrod reported that Lee had to convince Urban Meyer to bring him on board and attended numerous summer camps to prove his worth to the legendary coach.
“He came to camp, like five or six times, (and) I rejected him probably four times,” Meyer told Axelrod in that Bleacher Report article. “Shows you how good an evaluator I am.”
The 6-foot-1, 232-pound inside linebacker went on to play three years for the Buckeyes and tallied 138 tackles, 11 sacks and three interceptions.
Is Lee a Project?
Given his past, you’d have to think the Bills are taken a flier on Lee. But, with their struggling defense and lack of depth at linebacker, they have to be willing to see what he can bring to the team, despite his past.
He’s shown he’s capable of playing well at the linebacker position and with Matt Milano slowly returning from an injury and Tremaine Edmunds playing banged up, Buffalo could use depth at the position. Whether he joins the practice squad or the 53-man active roster immediately, Lee provides that depth for the Bills and could produce for them moving forward.
In corresponding moves on Monday, the Bills released linebacker Ahmad Gooden from the practice squad and also activated tight end Nate Becker off the covid-19 list and back to the practice squad.
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