Bills trade for safety Dean Marlowe from Falcons

The Buffalo Bills have acquired safety Dean Marlowe in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons, the team announced on Tuesday afternoon. They send a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft back to Atlanta to complete the deal.

Marlowe, 30, returns to the Bills after spending the last two seasons with the Detroit Lions and Atlanta. He departed Buffalo as a free agent following the 2020 season after spending three seasons as a reserve in the Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier defense. In his three seasons with Buffalo, he recorded two interceptions, a fumble recovery, and seven defended passes while playing predominantly on special teams and as a backup.

The Bills have already lost safety Micah Hyde for the season with a neck injury, and fellow starting safety Jordan Poyer has been dealing with a slew of injuries this season. Most recently, he popped his elbow in the Bills’ win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, and the team hasn’t yet provided an update on his status ahead of the team’s Week 9 matchup with the New York Jets.

Marlowe joins a Bills safety group that includes Poyer and fellow starter Damar Hamlin, along with Jaquan Johnson in reserve. Marlowe has a high degree of familiarity with the system, and so could be viewed as a plug-and-play starter if Poyer is set to miss any time and the team isn’t comfortable rolling with Johnson long-term.

We’ll have more on this trade as more information becomes available.