Getty Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde signed a 2-year extension on March 5.
The Buffalo Bills secondary is locked up for at least the next two years.
On Friday, the Bills announced that they had agreed to a two-year extension with safety Micah Hyde that will keep him in Buffalo through 2023 and ensures that one of the top safety combinations in the league – Hyde and Jordan Poyer – will stay together.
“I’m just super thankful and blessed to be to be in this position,” Hyde told media Friday afternoon. “Buffalo has been amazing the past four years from the fans to the community, I wouldn’t want to change anything about our team. I’ve been saying this for a while, but we’re headed in the right direction. We’ve been winning a lot of games lately and we want to take it to the next level.
“I can’t put into words how happy I am, not just for football’s sake but my family and wife, we have a ton of family close to Buffalo. I’m thankful that we were able to get something done and for [Brandon] Beane, Sean [McDermott] and [Leslie] Frazier to trust me enough to give me some extended years. It’s a blessing.”
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Hyde’s deal is worth $19.25 million and the most important aspect of the contract extension is that Hyde’s cap hit will remain the same. Due to the salary cap situation this season that will be crucial as the Bills look to improve their roster, even more, this offseason.
The #Bills agreed to a terms with S Micah Hyde on a 2-year extension worth $19.25M, source said. He’s under contract through 2023, and his cap number for this season remains essentially the same.
Since coming to Buffalo together in 2017, Hyde and Poyer have proven themselves as one of the top safety tandems in the league and have solidified the secondary on the back end of one of the top defenses in the league. This past season Hyde tallied 70 tackles, one interception, five pass deflections and started in 15 of Buffalo’s 16 regular season games.
In four total years in Buffalo, Hyde has recorded 282 tackles, nine interceptions, two forced fumbles, and five tackles for a loss as he’s been a huge component to a Buffalo defense that has ranked in the top five, two of the past four years.
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Hyde Said He Didn’t Want to Come to Buffalo At First
When Hyde became a free agent before the 2017 season, he had his eyes set on playing somewhere warm and sunny. He had grown up in Ohio, played his college ball at Iowa, and played the first four years of his NFL career in Green Bay.
He had always played in colder climates and in a call with media on Friday, Hyde revealed that Buffalo wasn’t the first team that he wanted to come to because of the cold weather.
“I wasn’t somebody that everybody was chasing after and wanted as their top guy and that type of stuff so when I was getting the love from Buffalo I was like cool” Hyde said via Thad Brown from RochesterFirst.com.”But I remember having a conversation with my agent before that and saying like ‘Look man I grew up in cold Ohio, I played at Iowa, I was in Green Bay, like let’s go to a warm city and maybe like not Buffalo.”
Hyde ended up signing in Buffalo that free agency and has been one of the main contributors to Buffalo’s turnaround and he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Now, I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Hyde said via Thad Brown. “It’s one of the best places to play, the fans are amazing, we live in Orchard Park where it’s like a family. We love our neighbors, they take care of us, I can call them up right now and see if they want to hangout and they’d be down too. It’s just that type of atmosphere, it’s family.”
Hyde Dislikes the Perception Free Agents Have About Buffalo
Since coming to Buffalo, Hyde has tried to play the part of recruiter each offseason as well, reaching out to guys to try and bring them to Buffalo. But, most of those free agents have turned Hyde down and during his media call on Friday, Hyde was pretty upset about it.
“Throughout the past couple years, I would talk to some free agent guys that I know or I’m close with and they would go on visits and I would be like ‘Come to Buffalo,'” Hyde said via Dan Fetes from 13WHAM. “They would be like, na I’m cool I’ll go somewhere else but ya know at the end of the day I bet they are pretty pissed off that they didn’t come to Buffalo because now they are probably sitting on a trash team or sitting on a couch somewhere else because they didn’t come to Buffalo.”
“There are just a lot of guys that think Buffalo is the old Buffalo and we’re not winning and all that. It’s disrespect because the city is an amazing city, the team, the organization is amazing and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Buffalo’s time of losing is in the past and Hyde is ready to change the perception of Buffalo by the product they put on the field. After this past season, where they went 13-3 and put together a run to the AFC Championship, more free agents might be more willing to come to Buffalo in the future.
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Micah Hyde Reveals Telling Story About His 2017 Free Agency