Buffalo Bills trim roster by releasing Vosean Joseph and Corey Thompson

The Buffalo Bills began the process of cutting their roster down Friday by releasing two linebackers.

In under 24 hours, the Buffalo Bills will need to have their roster down to 53 players ahead of the upcoming season. On Friday, the team began that process by releasing two linebackers, Vosean Joseph and Corey Thompson.

The release of Joseph is probably the most surprising considering he was a fifth round pick just a season ago. However, he has struggled to stay healthy and was on injured reserve all last year. In this training camp, he also suffered some injuries that forced him to miss time.

While the release is surprising, the Bills likely could try to bring him back on the practice squad if he does clear waivers.

Thompson joined the Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and actually played 18 games over the past two years. He finished with 21 total tackles during that stretch and saw most of his playing time on special teams.

The release of Joseph and Thompson significantly helps the chances of Tyrel Dodson and Andre Smith to make the team’s 53-man roster. Last week, Leslie Frazier talked about how well Dodson has performed this training camp and was practicing as the team’s backup middle linebacker.

As for Andre Smith, the Bills traded for him earlier this week with the Carolina Panthers. He was a seventh round pick in 2018 but has primarily only played special teams. He did play all 16 games last year and had five total tackles while playing 65% of the special teams’ snaps. This is likely where he once again will have the most impact this coming season.

The addition of Andre Smith was probably the reason the Buffalo Bills released Corey Thompson. The fact they already had Tyler Matakevich, there was only so much room on the roster for linebackers who spend the majority of the time playing special teams.