Buffalo re-signs 4 free agents plus a wide receiver and defensive tackle.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
The Buffalo Bills added depth to the wide receiver group and defensive line with the signings of veterans WR Jeremy Kerley and DT Tenny Palepoi on Monday. Both players signed one-year contracts.
Kerley, 29, spent last season with the New York Jets as it was his second stint with the club that made him a fifth-round pick in 2011. In eight games last season he had 22 receptions for 217 yards and a touchdown.
He spent the 2016 season with the San Francisco 49ers, after signing with the club as a free agent and posted a career-high 64 receptions for 667 yards and three touchdowns.
Kerley (5-9, 188) is expected to compete for the slot receiver role in Buffalo’s passing attack.
He led the Jets in receptions and receiving yards in 2012 and 2013 working a good deal out of the slot before his role was reduced under the club’s new coaching staff.
Kerley is also an experienced punt returner with a career average of just under nine yards (8.7).
Palepoi, 27, was a rotational player in three of the last four seasons (2014, 2016-2017) for the Los Angeles Chargers, where he signed as an undrafted rookie in 2014. The defensive tackle missed the 2015 season with a fractured foot.
Last season he posted a career-best 20 tackles in a reserve role for the Chargers.
Palepoi already has a former college teammate on the roster in Lotulelei. He was Lotulelei’s backup in college at Utah during the 2012 season.
A stocky run plugger at 6-2, 298 pounds, Palepoi is expected to compete for a rotational role in Buffalo’s run front.
4 free agents re-sign
The Bills successfully re-signed each of their four exclusive rights free agents. TE Nick O’Leary, CB Lafayette Pitts, TE Logan Thomas and DE Eddie Yarbrough all signed their exclusive rights tender offers when they reported to the team’s offseason conditioning program on Monday morning. The signings tie the four players to the Bills for the 2018 season.
O’Leary, 25, appeared in 15 games for the Bills last season, making 22 receptions for 322 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also served in a blocking capacity in the run game.
Fellow TE Logan Thomas, 26, appeared in 12 games and had seven catches for 67 yards and a score.
Perhaps the player who was the most pleasant surprise of this group was DE Eddie Yarbrough. The young pass rusher earned a spot on the 53-man roster using hustle and effort to generate production as he became a rotational pass rusher on Buffalo’s defensive line in 2017.
Yarbrough, 24, appeared in all 16 games finishing with 34 tackles, a sack, seven quarterback hits and four tackles for loss.
CB Lafayette Pitts, 25, was claimed off waivers by the Bills last October and appeared in 10 games mainly on special teams.