A week after adding former Buffalo Bills defensive end Mario Addison, the Houston Texans have double-dipped, signing former Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes, per Jordan Schultz. Hughes was the longest-tenured member of the Buffalo Bills before his contract expired. Hughes is from Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston, and went to Texas Christian University in Forth Worth so his Texas roots run deep.
The deadline for compensatory picks was last Monday, so players signed from here on out won’t count in the formula. That’s perhaps the reason Addison and Hughes remained on the market through the NFL Draft.
Hughes and Addison are both following a former coach to Houston. Former Bills assistant defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire is Houston’s current defensive line coach.
Before his retirement, Kyle Williams was the longest-tenured Bills player, passing the torch to Hughes. Hughes played nine years in Buffalo, originally coming to Western New York in a trade from the Indianapolis Colts in 2013. After 144 games, he’s tied for 27th on the team’s all-time list. The longest-tenured Bills player now is long snapper Reid Ferguson, who has 81 games in a Bills uniform and has said his goal is to play in more Bills games than any player ever. Dion Dawkins has 80, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer are at 79, while Tre’Davious White has 72.
Hughes never earned a Pro Bowl nod for the Bills, but he was a high-quality player for nearly a decade. He recorded ten sacks in each of his first two seasons with the team, and 53 total over his career while also knowing and fitting into his role in the defense (at least when Rex Ryan wasn’t in charge). Two fumble-return touchdowns were highlights. His sack numbers declined, but he always played well in run support and even as he got older, his snap percentages stayed consistently high.
Good luck, Jerry. We will miss you.
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