Jordan Phillips returns to the Buffalo Bills on a one-year deal

The defensive line has been a focus for the Buffalo Bills this offseason and on Thursday they were able to bring back a former player to help the position

The defensive tackle position was one that was expected to go through significant changes this offseason for the Buffalo Bills. The team had three players at the position from last year’s team (Harrison Phillips, Vernon Butler, and Justin Zimmer) set to be free agents.

The depth at the position is very important when considering how Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier run their defense as they like to rotate players regularly during the course of the game. The Bills started to rebuild the position by signing DaQuan Jones and Tim Settle but weren’t done there and were able to sign a player who they did not expect to be available this offseason and one they know well.

Jordan Phillips agrees to a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills

Earlier this week, the Arizona Cardinals released defensive tackle Jordan Phillips who had signed a three-year contract with the Cardinals in 2020 after a breakout season with the Buffalo Bills.

Phillips originally joined the Bills in 2018 after Buffalo claimed him off waivers mid-season. He would play well but it wasn’t until 2019 that he really broke out as he would start nine games and finished the year with 13 tackles for a loss, 9.5 sacks, and 16 QB hits.

However, he was not able to have the same success in Arizona with only four tackles for a loss, five sacks and seven QB hits in two seasons. Phillips did deal with a number of injuries during that time and played in only 18 regular season games during that stretch.

When meeting with the media on Thursday, Jordan Phillips was asked why he would want to return to the Buffalo Bills and gave a great answer:

If the Buffalo Bills are able to get Jordan Phillips to bounce back to how he was playing during his first tenure with the team, this will be a big boost for this defense and the defensive tackle position.