Ex-Bills DE Returns to Texans, Reunites With Stefon Diggs

After being traded away by the Buffalo Bills, Stefon Diggs will have another familiar face with him in Houston.

Former Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes re-signed with the Houston Texans, NFL reporter Aaron Wilson noted on X on July 8. Hughes had spent the previous two years in Houston after playing for the Bills for nine seasons, becoming one of the longest-tenured members of the team and a cornerstone of a defense that ended Buffalo’s 17-year playoff drought and became a perennial Super Bowl contender.

Hughes will now return to his hometown team for what will be his 15th season in the NFL.

Jerry Hughes Returns

Hughes made a big impact in Houston in his first season there, recording 9.0 sacks and 35 total tackles in 2022, but appeared in just two games in 2023. As Coty M. Davis of SI.com noted, Hughes’ return to Houston could provide an important boost to an already strong position group.

“With the addition of Hughes, the defensive line could be the Texans’ top position group entering training camp,” Davis wrote. “They made one of the league’s top free-agency signings with the acquisition of Danielle Hunter. The Texans also added Denico Autry and Folorunso Fatukasi to pair with reigning Defensive Player of the Year winner Will Anderson Jr.”

Hughes’ return means he will once again play with Diggs, his teammate on the Bills for two seasons. The Bills shipped Diggs to Houston in a trade earlier this offseason, a move that general manager Brandon Beane said was a “difficult” decision to address the team’s lack of salary cap space.

“Sometimes in this seat, you’ve got to make difficult decisions… It’s not lightly… it wasn’t easy,” Beane said. “But it was with a lot of thought, discussion, and conversations at the highest level of our organization. It was made with the best interest of the Bills.”

Bills Looking for Consistent Pass Rush

The Bills have spent the last two seasons trying to replace Hughes’ production as a pass rusher. Though defensive ends A.J. Epenesa and Gregory Rousseau have shown improvement during that time, the Bills still lack the production that Hughes brought off the edge.

The Bills tried to fill some of the void of Hughes’ departure by signing veteran Von Miller, but he has struggled to recover from a torn ACL suffered in a Thanksgiving Day win in 2022. Miller had a career-worst statistical season in 2023, making no sacks and just 3 total tackles in 12 games.

Miller told Pat Benson of SI.com that he pushed himself to return but should have spent more time getting back to form before returning to the field.

“My biggest individual goal is just getting back to playing my style of football,” Miller said when asked about his goal for the coming season. “It’s crazy how you get injured, and you come back, and you really shouldn’t have even been playing, and people judge you by a product on the field. I could have easily sat out all of last season, but I couldn’t do my teammates like that. I felt like being later in my career, I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my years. But at the same time, I shouldn’t have been out there.”