3 Bills who won’t be on the roster after training camp

Here are three Buffalo Bills cut candidates in training camp this season. One player on this list may surprise you.

The Buffalo Bills’ training camp got underway on July 18 in what could be another pivotal hot-seat season for head coach Sean McDermott. In 2023, another New York team is making a run for the Super Bowl — the Bills’ southern neighbors, the Jets, who have embodied Buffalo’s pesky (and much weaker) little brother for years.

Now, with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets entering the AFC East colosseum, the division just got a whole lot more competitive.

After last season’s disappointing playoff exit, Buffalo is running out of time to win some brass in the Josh Allen-Stefon Diggs era. Too many young quarterbacks are sprouting in the AFC every year, and at this point, the Bills may no longer be considered serious Super Bowl contenders anymore.

It all starts this training camp. Who will the Bills keep on the roster and who will they cut? What kind of statement is this 2023 Bills squad going to make from the get-go?

Here are three Bills players who may not be on the roster after camp.

Bills’ training camp cut candidate No. 3: Nyheim Hines, RB

With a logjam of solid running backs on the roster in 2023, at least one Bills ball carrier will have to go. We considered veteran Latavius Murray briefly, but we decided Nyheim Hines might be the better cut candidate.

Barring any shocking signings, James Cook and Damien Harris will be the one-two punch for the Bills up top. Former Broncos back Murray signed a one-year deal with Buffalo this past May, and while he’s not a super flashy or do-it-all talent, he has consistently produced in his last stints in not only Denver but Baltimore and New Orleans, too.

Murray’s reliability gives him the edge ahead of Hines, a 2018 fourth-round pick by the Colts who joined Buffalo last year. Hines had just 66 offensive snaps for the Bills in 2022 despite filling a position of need at the time; he got traded to Buffalo for Zack Moss and a pick, a move initially seen as shrewd from the Bills’ end given Hines’ lengthy experience backing up Jonathan Taylor and dual-threat abilities.

Yet Hines didn’t flourish in the AFC East as much as expected and ended up spending more time on special teams instead. After the league’s latest revisions to kickoff returns, all teams’ special teams unit will be slightly devalued, and Hines may find himself on the chopping block if he can’t cement a clear role for himself on the offense.

Plus, the Bills could save nearly $5 million by cutting Hines and keeping Murray as the No. 3 back this season.