The Buffalo Bills are bringing in some veteran help for their ailing secondary.
The Bills announced that they signed safety Terrell Burgess to a one-year contract on July 31, joining the team a day after rookie safety Cole Bishop was forced out of practice with an unspecified injury. The Bills had already lost safety Mike Edwards to an injury that could keep him out for weeks.
The safety position had already been in flux after the departures of All-Pros Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, and the injuries could cast even more uncertainty in the weeks before the regular season kicks off.
Bills Bringing in Reinforcements
Burgess came into the NFL as a third-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 2020 and won a Super Bowl with them. He also spent time with the New York Giants and appeared in 12 games for the Washington Commanders last season.
We’ve signed S Terrell Burgess to a one-year deal and released P Jack Browning. #BillsMafia
More details: t.co/YgFhsHWxgp
His signing was the second addition to the safety room for the Bills this week. They also signed 15-year veteran Kareem Jackson to a one-year deal shortly after announcing that Edwards was out on a week-to-week basis due to his hamstring injury.
As the team noted, Jackson started 193 of 203 regular season games in his NFL career, adding eight postseason games. He has a total of 954 career tackles and 22 interceptions, returning three for touchdowns.
Jackson is coming off a difficult season in 2023 where he was suspended twice for a total of six games for repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules.
The signings could signal that Hyde will not return to the Bills after rumblings that he could play one final season. Hyde said that he was wavering between a return to Buffalo or retirement, and Bills general manager Brandon Beane was open earlier this offseason to the veteran safety coming back for a final NFL season.
“Bills GM Brandon Beane said he doesn’t think Micah Hyde has ‘shut the door’ on playing and that the Bills ‘definitely wouldn’t shut the door to ever bringing a Micah Hyde back if he decides to play,’ ” ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg wrote on X in March. “Beane emphasized that he doesn’t know if Hyde is decided either way right now.”
Uncertain Future for Mike Edwards
Edwards already had a slow start to his Bills career when a lingering shoulder injury forced him to miss a stretch of offseason practices. As Nick Wojton of USA Today’s Bills Wire noted, Edwards was originally slated as a starter but was not with the first-team defense when training camp opened due to the shoulder injury.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott said the team planned to bring Edwards along slowly, but the latest injury adds uncertainty to his place on the depth chart.
“It’s a part of the game, on one hand,” McDermott said via video conference. “The other part is, in order to get the scheme down the way you need to get it down, you need to be out there. But Mike’s a pro, he’s been around it before, so I’m sure he’ll do his best to stay up as best as he can on the mental end of things.”
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Bills Add Super Bowl Champion Safety After Injuries Leave Position Depleted