ORCHARD PARK – If there’s a team that loves to bring back its former players more than the Buffalo Bills, good luck finding it.
Tuesday morning, the Bills signed defensive lineman Shaq Lawson to their practice squad, meaning this will be his third stint with the team that gave him his NFL start back in 2016 when he was its first-round draft pick.
“We love Shaq,” coach Sean McDermott said. “He brings great energy. He’s always been one of our tougher players and he’s not afraid to mix it up. So he’s been on his journey as well. It was just more than anything, I think, an opportunity to see what’s out there and what may be able to help us.”
The Bills’ defensive line is admittedly a mess with Ed Oliver, Michael Hoecht, DeWayne Carter and Landon Jackson all on injured reserve. In the last two games, they have been playing rookie DT TJ Sanders on the edge and that has predictably been a mess because he’s never played on the outside.
Also, they have been forced to use Jordan Phillips – the all-time leader in multiple chances from the Bills – in seven games this season, while second-year edge rusher Javon has also gotten way more playing time on defense than he should be getting. Phillips and Solomon have been two of the Bills four worst defenders according to Pro Football Focus.
So yes, there is an obvious need to get someone on the field who can be relied on, but one has to wonder if Lawson is capable. When he was last with the Bills in 2023 he played 33.3% of the snaps and PFF graded him as one of the least effective players on the defense.
Last year he was briefly with the Panthers and played in one game before getting released in late October and the 31-year-old has been out of the league since.
“It’s always great to see ex-players come back, especially with the energy he brings to the table everybody loves him in the building,” McDermott said. “We’ll see how he rolls here and gets himself more acclimated to football shape.”
A couple weeks ago the Bills signed defensive lineman Morgan Fox to the practice squad and he seems like a player who could give the Bills more help at this stage than Lawson, especially now that he’s had some time to familiarize himself with the defense.
Fox is also 31, but unlike the highly-regarded Lawson in the 2016 draft was an undrafted player who signed with the Rams. For the past three seasons Fox was with the Chargers where he racked up 15.5 sacks while Lawson has 4.5 in the last three years.
If the Bill decide to activate one of the two from the practice squad for Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh, Fox seems like the much better alternative.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills sign familiar face in scramble for defensive depth amid injury crisis
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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