Kickoff specialist Jordan Gay has been released today by the Buffalo Bills, according to the team site. Gay has been at the center of a special teams experiment in the last few seasons, as the Bills were one of the only teams to experiment with a kickoff specialist. Gay had an opportunity to challenge Dan Carpenter for the kicker position this preseason, but blew it when he missed a field goal and an extra-point. Those misses and the new touchback rules were reason enough for Gay to not make the original 53-man roster. He was however held on the practice squad. He was promoted back to the game day roster when Seantrel Henderson was suspended by the NFL for the first four games. With dangerous threats like Devin Hester and Patrick Peterson in the rear view mirror, it may be that the Bills decided his services were no longer necessary.
The Bills also announced the signing of two other players to the practice squad. First up is center Terran Vaughn. Vaughn is a 6’3” 306 lb. Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack who signed as an undrafted free agent this offseason with the Oakland Raiders. Vaughn was waived by the Raiders on August 29th, in their cut down to 75.
The other, and potentially more interesting, player is 5’10” 193 lb. wide receiver Ed Eagan. Eagan is a Northwestern State (LA) product and set program records for career kickoff return yardage (2,125), single-season kickoff return yardage (1,045), and single-season kickoff returns (45)...during his junior year. Eagan went undrafted in April, but was signed by the Cowboys shortly after the draft. Dallas waived him on August 10th and he was picked up by the Browns on August 14th, but then waived on August 19th. The signing of Eagan only adds to the reasoning pointing to the Bills parting ways with Reggie Bush once Seantrel Henderson and Marcell Dareus return from suspension.