The Buffalo Bills didn’t have to wait long to try to build on their opening weekend shootout 36-31 win over the Houston Texans.
The Bills jump right back into the fray, getting the NFL’s Week 2 underway on Thursday Night Football as they take on the 1-0 Detroit Lions.
Just a few hours before opening kickoff, the Bills announced decisions on two players, elevating them from the practice squad for tonight’s game.
The Buffalo Bills elevated Frank Gore Jr. and Greg Dortch from the practice squad Thursday, reusing the identical short-term call-ups from their season-opening win, the team announced at about 5:40 p.m. ET Thursday.
Buffalo’s home opener at Highmark Stadium against the Detroit Lions comes with Ty Johnson still nursing a hamstring injury and no true punt returner locked into the 53-man roster.
A club can dress two extra bodies for a single game under roster rules governing player elevations, then return them to the practice squad the next business day. Buffalo relied on the same mechanism to open the season at Houston, according to the team’s announcement. Kickoff against Detroit is 8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
Frank Gore Jr. Steps In For Buffalo Backfield
Johnson has been sidelined since Aug. 8 and sat out the opener. Gore played 11 snaps in that game, the second-most among Bills running backs, logging one carry for 3 yards while out-snapping Ray Davis at the position, according to Sports Illustrated. Coach Joe Brady leaned on Gore during last January’s playoff run, using him in both postseason games, and that trust appears to be carrying into the regular season.
Gore, 24, is the son of Hall of Fame running back Frank Gore, who spent part of his own career in Buffalo, according to CBS Sports. The younger Gore starred at Southern Miss from 2020 to 2023, piling up more than 4,000 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns across four seasons as a starter. He signed with Buffalo as an undrafted free agent in 2024 and has bounced onto and off the practice squad in each of his three pro seasons, never appearing in a regular-season game until his Week 1 carry this year.
Buffalo also saw it in the preseason, when Gore ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns in one exhibition outing, according to a separate preseason breakdown.
Greg Dortch Fills Buffalo’s Return Void
Buffalo isn’t carrying a dedicated returner on its active roster, and Dortch handled both jobs in the opener. He returned three kickoffs for 82 yards, an average of 27.3, and added two punt returns for 10 yards. The 28-year-old also worked under Bills special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers previously in Arizona, a connection that likely smoothed his transition into Buffalo’s scheme.
Detroit signed Dortch in the offseason to a one-year deal before releasing him at final cuts, and he landed on Buffalo’s practice squad the same day. At Wake Forest, Dortch earned first-team All-American honors in 2018 after catching 142 passes for 1,800 yards over two seasons.
His NFL career, split between seven franchises since 2019, includes career receiving totals of 145 catches for 1,310 yards and 10 touchdowns. That workload builds on a career kickoff-return average of 23.8 yards, with a personal-best 26.6 mark in 2024, the same NFL.com career page shows.
Bills Announce Decisions on 2 Players Hours Before Lions Game