A veteran running back is on the move from one New York team to another.
Former Giants running back Devonta Freeman has signed with the Bills heading into the AFC divisional round, according to his agent Drew Rosenhaus via ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Freeman was waived from the Giants on Jan. 7 from injured reserve.
The signing will add much-needed depth to the Buffalo running back corps, left shorthanded after rookie Zack Moss was carted off the field with an ankle injury during the second half of Saturday’s wild-card clash against the Colts.
Moss, 23, appeared in 13 games in his rookie season and rushed 112 times for 481 yards, four touchdowns and caught 14 of 18 targets for 95 yards and a receiving touchdown. He will miss the remainder of the postseason.
Freeman, 28, was a free agent heading into 2020 after spending six seasons with the Falcons. The 2014 fourth-rounder from Florida State posted consecutive 1,000-yard seasons in 2015 and 2016. He has two Pro Bowl nods and earned a second-team All-Pro bid in 2015, but was cut amid salary cap constraints, injuries and poor performance.
Freeman hired super-agent Rosenhaus in July and signed with the Giants after Week 2 on the heels of Saquon Barkley’s season-ending knee injury. He played five games for the team before being placed on injured reserve and accrued 172 yards and a touchdown on 54 attempts. He also caught seven of ten passes for 58 yards.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott said he will lean on second-year running back Devin Singletary, as well as some lesser-known members of their roster.
“I just told [Singletary] it’s his time to step up and this is what he’s worked all his life for,” McDermott told reporters on Monday. “And, you know, Devin’s a guy that has worked extremely hard over the course of his career even before he got to the NFL. He’s no stranger to hard work and he’s no stranger to having to carry the load, and I know this team is 100% confident in Devin Singletary.”
Singletary, 23, appeared in all 16 games this season. He saw 156 attempts for 687 yards, two touchdowns and caught 38 of 50 targets for 269 yards.
“Zack being out, we’ll look at guys on our roster that we have a lot of confidence in, T.J. [Yeldon] and Antonio [Williams] and [practice squad player] Christian [Wade] there, so we’ll take a look at what our options are,” McDermott added. “And like I said, we’ve got a lot of confidence in all three of those guys.”
The Bills will face the Ravens on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. ET in Buffalo.