On Sunday, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane told reporters that cornerback E.J. Gaines has opted out of the 2020 season.
As the Buffalo Bills begin preparation for the upcoming season, the team will be without cornerback E.J. Gaines. During a virtual conference call on Sunday morning, Bills’ general manager Brandon Beane announced that the veteran cornerback has elected to opt out of the upcoming season, according to multiple reporters including ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
E.J. Gaines was a sixth round pick by the Rams in 2014 but has dealt with his fair share of injuries. He played 15 games as a rookie but missed the entire 2015 season due to a training camp injury.
He returned to start 10 games in 2016 and then joined the Buffalo Bills in 2017 as part of the Sammy Watkins trade with the Los Angeles Rams. In his first year with the team, he had a career year with 11 starts with 59 total tackles and nine passes defended.
However, Gaines left the in free agency and spent one year with the Cleveland Browns. He returned in 2019 but missed the season due to an injury in training camp. The team brought him back this offseason and he was expected to be depth at the position, and possibly even win the starting job in competition with Levi Wallace and Josh Norman.
This is certainly a blow to the depth the Bills have at the cornerback position, one that was tested at times last year. The news, as reported by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, last week that the team had brought in cornerback Akeem King for a physical makes sense now with the decision by Gaines to opt out.
Former #Seahawks CB Akeem King is in Buffalo to take a physical with the #Bills, source said. King played in 29 games (four starts) over the past two seasons in Seattle. Some experienced secondary help if all goes well medically.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 31, 2020
This is the second Buffalo Bills player to elect to opt out of the upcoming season due to concerns with the pandemic. Last week, starting defensive tackle Star Lotulelei informed the team that he would be opting out of the upcoming season.