Sidelined since tearing his ACL in a jet ski accident two years ago, running back Nyheim Hines made it known earlier this week that he would like to be with a team for training camp.
Now, in an interview with Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer, Hines says he’s getting back into the form that helped make him a key contributor for both the Colts and Bills.
“I’m far from done, and the story is in my hand,” Hines told Kaye. “I put myself in this position, but as athletes, we’re in an unfortunate situation in a job ... that we can’t control everything, but the pen is always in our hand, based on our performance. So, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to grab that pen and write whatever story I want.
“I could have died,” Hines added. “So many things could have been worse. So, I’m thankful that I’m here to tell this story and be an example of what you don’t need to do.”
Hines, 28, spent part of last season with the Browns, who did not activate him after the running back exhausted his 21-day practice window. Cleveland released Hines in February. But as he was attempting to return to play, Hines’ mother’s health declined in her battle with muscular dystrophy. She was on and off a ventilator before she was finally able to return home.
“Knowing my mom has fought for this extra time to watch me play this year has been the most humbling and best feeling of why I would [play again],” Hines said.
Hines, who played his college ball at NC State, has been working out in the Charlotte area to get ready for the coming season. Hines has been a solid punt and kick returner throughout his career — including a pair of kick returns against the Patriots in Week 18 of the 2023 season. That’s where he envisions his role as he makes his comeback.
“I think I can go out there today and help a team win,” Hines said. “It doesn’t take much of a playbook to catch a punt or catch a kickoff, and trust your blocks, and have great vision to do what you have to do. But like I’ve always said, I’ve always been an elite returner, but I feel like I’m an offensive player with elite return abilities.
“When I’ve had opportunities [on offense], I’ve had great success. ... Obviously, I want to go on Day 1 and be a return guy — if it’s kick or punt return. If you ask me to be a gunner or ask me to be a personal protector on special teams, then I’m going to do whatever I’ve got to do. And then, hopefully, I learn the playbook and help a team out there [on offense], because I know I’m still a mismatch out there. I’m still fast, I’m still quick, and I’m ready to go.”
Nyheim Hines would like another shot.
Via ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hines is looking to find a team for training camp this summer — nearly two years after suffering a torn ACL during a jet ski accident.
Hines, 28, was an effective dual-threat running back for the Colts for several years before he was traded to the Bills midway through the 2022 season. He memorably returned two kicks for touchdowns in Buffalo’s Week 18 victory over New England — a week after Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the field against Cincinnati.
But Hines missed all of the 2023 season due to his torn ACL and signed with the Browns in March of last year. While Cleveland started Hines’ 21-day practice window, the club elected not to activate him off of the physically unable to perform list.
Cleveland then released Hines in February.
According to Schefter, Hines now feels his knee is finally ready for a return to action.
Hines has 1,832 return yards and four touchdowns in his career. He’s also recorded 1,205 rushing yards, 1,725 receiving yards, and 18 touchdowns from scrimmage since the Colts made him a fourth-round pick in 2018.
Almost a year ago, wide receiver Chase Claypool suffered a toe injury in Bills training camp that was initially described as day-to-day but ended up being so serious that it cost him the entire season. Now Claypool is unsigned, but says he’s ready to have the best year of his career.
Claypool wrote on social media that he needed extensive medical treatment and rehab but is now capable of doing everything he’s ever done on the football field.
“I tore a ligament and a tendon in my second toe and have been rehabbing, working out, and recovering every day for the past year,” Claypool wrote. “I am back to being the strongest and fastest I’ve ever been and couldn’t be more excited to step back out on the field and let my actions speak for themselves. I deeply and truly believe that the pieces will align, and I will work my way into the position to show off what’s been suppressed these last two years.”
The 27-year-old Claypool has talent, which is why the Steelers drafted him in the second round in 2020 and why the Bears traded a second-round pick to acquire him in 2022. But after a promising first couple of seasons in Pittsburgh, his production plummeted. In 2023 he caught just eight passes while playing for two teams, the Bears and Dolphins, and then didn’t play at all in 2024.
Claypool has fallen a long way from when he was one of the NFL’s best rookie receivers five years ago, but he has shown enough in his NFL career that some team will likely give him a chance to show in training camp that he really is stronger and faster than ever.
Thursday’s #PFTPM including a simple question: “What are your thoughts on a potential Bills-Rams Super Bowl?”
My thoughts are it could happen, because both teams are firmly in the Super Bowl window.
In any given year, not many teams truly are. And while teams not apparently in the window can, in theory, win their way in, the salary-cap system has matured to the point where some teams have cracked the code — and some teams can’t crack their way out of a paper bag.
It also helps to have drafted and developed a franchise quarterback.
In most years, roughly 10 teams are in the window, roughly 10 teams aren’t, and the remaining 12 could break either way. This year, the AFC’s true short-list contenders are the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Bengals, and Texans. The Broncos and Chargers could force their way into the conversation.
In the NFC, it’s the Eagles, Lions, Rams, 49ers, and Commanders. Maybe the Buccaneers. Maybe the Vikings.
Again, things can and will change. That’s why they play the games, as someone once said. All the time.
For those who like a little variety, it would be nice for someone other than the Chiefs to get a turn in the Super Bowl. And for someone other than the Eagles, 49ers, or Rams to emerge from the NFC.
Since 2017, it’s been the Eagles three times, the 49ers twice, the Rams twice, and the Bucs once. For the AFC, it’s been only the Patriots, Chiefs, and Bengals.
That’s it. Over eight seasons, seven total franchises have taken the 16 total Super Bowl berths.
Free agency, the salary cap, and a draft process that rewards failure should be enough to mix things up. But the reality is that good teams stay good, and bad teams stay bad.
Free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore wants to play a 14th NFL season.
“I want to play this year,” Gilmore said on The Money Down podcast. “It’s got to be the right situation. You know what I’m saying? It’s got to be the right situation for me. You know what I’m saying? I’m not just going to sign anywhere, so it’s got to be the right situation.
“I still love the game. I still can contribute. It’s just got to be the right place.”
Gilmore, who will turn 35 in September, visited the Cowboys’ team facility in April before they drafted Shavon Revel Jr. in the third round. Gilmore spent 2023 in Dallas.
He played 15 games for the Vikings in 2024, totaling an interception, nine pass breakups and 56 tackles.
Gilmore began his NFL career as a first-round pick of the Bills in 2021 and also has played for the Patriots, Panthers and Colts.
In 2019, Gilmore was the league’s defensive player of the year, but he hasn’t made the Pro Bowl since 2021.
There was a time when misconduct predating a player’s arrival to the NFL would not result in direct scrutiny under the Personal Conduct Policy. At most, pre-NFL behavior would be a factor in punishment for post-NFL misdeeds.
That changed in 2023.
The league revised the Personal Conduct Policy that year to include this statement: “Nothing in this Policy should be read to limit the league’s authority to investigate or discipline potential Policy violations alleged to have occurred before a player is under contract or Draft-eligible.”
With Bills first-round cornerback Maxwell Hairston facing a civil lawsuit alleging that he engaged in sexual assault at the University of Kentucky in 2021, it’s possible that Hairston could face an investigation or discipline.
For now, the league has declined comment on the matter, other than to acknowledge that it is aware of the lawsuit.
Bills G.M. Brandon Beane said after Hairston was drafted that the team fully investigated the situation. He also explained that, if there was any merit to the claim, Hairston wouldn’t have been invited to the Scouting Combine or the draft.
That all could change, if the lawsuit results in a trial featuring testimony from the alleged victim and testimony from Hairston. The evidence that comes to light in open court could change everything, depending on the versions supplied by the parties and the perceived credibility of their accounts.
An allegation of sexual assault didn’t keep the Bills from selecting cornerback Maxwell Hairston in round one. That allegation has now taken on a new form.
Via WKBW.com, Hairston has been sued for sexual assault.
The incident allegedly happened in 2021, while Hairston attended the University of Kentucky. The civil complaint claims that Hairston engaged in non-consensual sexual contact with the plaintiff in her dorm room. She reported the incident to law enforcement at the time, and she later transferred to a different school.
Hairston was not criminally charged.
“Yeah, he’s an impeccable kid and we’ve done a lot of research,” Bills G.M. Brandon Beane said after selecting Hairston in April. “I think all teams were aware of the Title IX thing. That was fully investigated by the school. There’s everything out, he even volunteered to do a polygraph and had notes. It was one of those where there was zero — zero — information saying that this actually happened to what the accusation was. Just like anything in this world, you can’t just take someone’s account and think that’s the truth, but yes, we fully investigated that. If there was anything to that he wouldn’t have been invited to the Combine, to the draft — he was at the draft last night. Every person you talk to at Kentucky — teammates, staff there, plus what we’ve done — I would say this is a heck of a young man, every person you ask. That’s unfortunate when things like that are attached to someone’s name and in this case, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
Whether there’s anything there will now become a matter of the civil justice system, where the ultimate outcome could be a full-blown trial in open court. And the evidence developed through the litigation could, in theory, attract the interest of 345 Park Avenue.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning doesn’t have to look far to find quarterback role models, given that his grandfather Archie and uncles Peyton and Eli all had long and successful NFL careers. But Manning doesn’t only look at his own family when trying to grow as a quarterback.
Asked at the Manning Passing Academy which other quarterbacks he studies, Manning named Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
“I’m watching a lot of Josh Allen and Joe Burrow right now. Those are my guys,” Manning said. “They’re dogs. I’ve watched some of their college film. They’re just good players, elite competitors and fun to watch.”
Although Manning’s uncles were not known for their mobility, Arch showed off his running ability when playing at Texas last season and said Allen’s ability to make plays with his legs is something he tries to emulate.
“He’s just the ultimate football player. If something’s not there he’s going to make something happen and do whatever he can to make his team win,” Manning said.
Manning is currently the betting favorite to be the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, which would make him the third member of his family to go first overall.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season, but he still hasn’t achieved the one thing he really wants in his career.
Allen says that until he has a Super Bowl ring, his résumé has a hole in it.
“You know, it is such a great honor, and I do appreciate being honored for my work,” Allen told Liam McKeone of SI.com. “But at the same time, I still didn’t win a Super Bowl. Didn’t win a ring, and that is the only goal. It’s the only focus that I’ve ever had going into this league.”
Allen said to the extent that the MVP matters to him, it’s mostly because a quarterback isn’t going to get the MVP award unless his team had a good regular season.
“The one positive, I will say, about winning an MVP means that your team is in a good position,” Allen said. “You’re making the playoffs, you’re playing well and you’re doing whatever you can to help your team win football games. But at the end of the day, you got to make the playoffs and then you got to win three, maybe four games. And that’s what we need to do. And we’re going to continue to work as hard as we can and myself included. What can we do to find a way over that hump? So that’s the only goal going forward.”
The Bills have had a lot of regular-season success with Allen and have made the playoffs six years in a row. But Allen has yet to lead the Bills to a Super Bowl, and that’s the one accomplishment that he’s focused on heading into 2025.
Nearly 20 years later, the events that clouded Reggie Bush’s entry to the NFL still resonate.
Via Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times, a judge recently upheld an arbitration award requiring Bush to pay Lloyd Lake $1.4 million for defamation.
It was Lake’s alleged provision of benefits to Bush’s family that sparked a controversy that resulted in USC football being sanctioned and in Bush losing his Heisman Trophy. (He has since gotten it back.)
The timing of the story’s emergence also may have contributed to the Texans’ decision to pass on Bush with the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. He was picked by the Saints at No. 2.
He also played for the Lions, Dolphins, 49ers, and Bills in an 11-year NFL career.
Lake originally sued Bush in 2007. The case was settled in 2010. The second lawsuit flowed from allegations that Bush violated a non-disparagement clause in the settlement agreement. The agreement also contained a clause requiring future disputes to go to arbitration.
According to Kartje, Bush appeared on the I Am Athlete podcast in 2022 and accused Lake of blackmail and exaggerated Lake’s criminal record, saying it was “as long as the Cheesecake Factory menu.” Bush, per Kartje, also falsely accused Lake of being a convicted rapist.
The arbitrator ruled in Lake’s favor, awarding him $500,000, along with $764,640 in attorneys’ fees and $116,780 in other costs.
Bush has appeal rights. Typically, however, it’s very difficult to get a court to throw out the results of a private arbitration agreement. That’s mainly because courts love arbitration agreements; they reduce the load of cases that otherwise would have to be resolved by the court system.
