PITTSFORD, N.Y. — The Bills faced several questions on their roster heading into training camp, but they thought they had the answer in the return game.
They did until Nyheim Hines suffered an ACL injury in a jet ski accident. His season is over even before it starts.
"We're going to support him. He's got to get his surgery. He hasn't done that yet. But we'll hopefully get him rehabbed here and hopefully 2024 is the best to come for him," GM Brandon Beane said.
In the meantime, the Bills are trying to figure how to replace him.
The options include receiver Khalil Shakir who the Bills drafted in the fifth round out of Boise State last year. They also signed All-Pro returner Deonte Harty in free agency.
Special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley says not much changes as to the structure of the approach they take in camp.
"You're constantly tweaking it as you go based on personnel, but it's not a major shift even though Nyheim, obviously a very good player. It's not a major shift in terms of schematically what you're doing or rep count during practice. Or even how you're setting up practice."
While that may be true, Beane indicated at the start of camp that Hines injury could impact their strategy on kickoff returns. The NFL has adopted a new rule for 2023 that returners can call for a fair catch when fielding kicks inside their own 25-yard line that would result in a touchback. Beane says that given Hines athleticism and experience, their plan had been to err on the side of aggression with regard to the new rule.
"Our plan would have been to return a lot of those because I think he's a top five returner. Now it will be who is going to win that job as a returner, and do we think it's advantageous to use the fair catch rule or do we feel like we have a guy who can have some opportunities to take it the distance or get it well past the 25 so... Our plan to was to attack these kickoff returns, but with Nyheim's injury, that's to be determined."
The Bills say the plan was to work Hines into the offense as well, but the potential change in strategy in the return game would likely be the biggest impact of losing him to injury.