The Buffalo Bills announced two transactions on Wednesday morning, adding a quarterback and swapping punters.
Colton Schmidt, who punted for the team the last four seasons, will rejoin the roster as rookie punter Corey Bojorquez heads to injured reserve with a shoulder injury.
Veteran Matt Barkley arrives in a battered quarterback room to help the unit after Derek Anderson was injured on Monday night. That follows rookie quarterback Josh Allen already being injured. Now, there’s some doubt if Allen will return at all this year.
Additionally, special teams captain Taiwan Jones was moved to injured reserve with the neck injury that sidelined him for the last few weeks.
Barkley, a former fourth round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, spent most of his career as a clipboard holder. With similar attributes to Nate Peterman, Barkley is known as a decent field processor with a lack of arm strength. In 2016, Barkley was pressed into service for six games as Chicago’s starting quarterback, a 1-5 stretch where he completed 60 percent of his passes, threw 8 touchdowns against 14 interceptions, and threw for 7 net yards per attempt. In 2017, Barkley wasn’t active for any games. Barkley spent the offseason with the Bengals and was expected to win the backup job in Cincinnati before injuring his knee in the preseason. That led to him landing on IR and eventually he was waived from the injury list.
In four seasons with Buffalo, Schmidt’s punting stats ranked highly among the franchise leaders, but they didn’t measure well against the average modern NFL punter, which is why the Bills looked to move on with Bojorquez. Now he has another extended audition for the job.