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2022 Free Agency: Mutual interest in Shaq Lawson returning to Bills, per report

Could a reunion be in the works?

Matt Warren is Associate Director of NFL coverage for SB Nation and previously covered the Bills for Buffalo Rumblings for more than a decade.

The Buffalo Bills allowed former first-round pick Shaq Lawson to hit the free-agent market in 2020, where he signed a lucrative deal with the Miami Dolphins. Now two years later, there is mutual interest in the two sides getting back together. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN tweeted the report on Wednesday morning.

Lawson himself confirmed that he is interested on Twitter Wednesday morning.

Since signing that big deal with the Dolphins, Lawson has been on a roller coaster ride. He played one season in Miami, with four sacks in a starting role. He was traded to the Houston Texans, but never played for them in a regular-season game. Houston traded him to the New York Jets during the 2021 preseason where he took starter’s reps but only had one sack.

The Jets released him near the end of the 2021 season, and speculation at the time was Buffalo might sign him to their practice squad for the playoff run. That never materialized.

Because Lawson was released, he can sign at any time and teams don’t need to wait for the start of the new league year to negotiate with him.

Jadeveon Clowney signed for one year and $8 million last offseason coming off of injury, but his sack numbers and pass-rushing advanced stats are far superior to Lawson. Solomon Thomas signed for one year, $3.25 million but was coming off an injury. A Morgan Fox contract of two years, $8.1 million might be the right baseline, perhaps with some incentives built in.

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