Buffalo Bills sign Alex Carrington to reported one-year deal

The Buffalo Bills are hosting free agent defensive lineman Alex Carrington on a visit at One Bills Drive today - and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports that he'll be signing a one-year deal, though the "when" isn't specified.

The #Bills will sign versatile DL Alex Carrington to a one-year deal, source said. He’s visiting today, played there from 2010-2013.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 4, 2015

Update: the signing is now official.

Welcome back to the Bills, Alex Carrington! The Bills have signed the DL: http://t.co/ixQbQH7F8x pic.twitter.com/sblrUv4fFs

— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) May 4, 2015

Carrington, of course, spent the first four years of his NFL career playing for the Bills, so aside from a few stadium upgrades, a snazzy new locker room setup, and a new coaching staff, a lot of it should be familiar to him. The former third-round pick out of Arkansas State will be 28 in June, and is coming off of one season spent as a little-used reserve (191 snaps played) with the St. Louis Rams.

The Bills could stand to improve their defensive line depth, where Stefan Charles and Corbin Bryant are easily upgradeable pieces in the Bills' base defense. Carrington was a starter for the Bills in that same base defense early in the 2013 season, playing for Mike Pettine, before an injury cost him the final 13 games of the year. In the first three games of that season, Carrington played 66 percent of the team's defensive snaps - a figure that might have been higher had he not been injured in Week 3, and a clean 14 percent higher than his replacement, Alan Branch, played for the duration of the season.

Carrington is also an accomplished kick blocker, so much so that he earned the nickname 'Megahand' from his Bills teammates during the 2012 season.

Carrington is the fourth veteran free agent to be linked to the Bills this spring, joining receiver Brad Smith, safety Dawan Landry and linebacker Brandon Spikes - but the first that the team has signed.