Bills sign blazing fast gadget player to practice squad in flurry of roster moves

The Buffalo Bills have signed offensive lineman Will Clapp to their active roster and wide receiver Ahmarean Brown to their practice squad.

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The Buffalo Bills have signed one player to their active roster and another to their practice squad in a flurry of Thursday roster moves. The team placed rookie offensive tackle Tylan Grable, who picked up a groin injury in Buffalo’s Week 3 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, on injured reserve, filling his spot on the 53-man roster with practice squad offensive lineman Will Clapp. The Bills filled his vacancy on the reserve unit with wide receiver Ahmarean Brown, who spent the offseason with the Cleveland Browns after going unselected in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Clapp, 28, inked a one-year deal with the Bills in the offseason after a two-year stint with the Los Angeles Chargers. He’s appeared in 65 games throughout his six previous professional seasons, starting 21 of them. The veteran has some positional versatility, but the vast majority of his regular season snaps in recent years have come at center; he took 39 offensive snaps for Buffalo in the 2024 preseason, per PFF, all of them coming at right guard.

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Brown is perhaps the most intriguing part of Thursday’s maneuvers, as the rookie has the makings of a potentially interesting gadget player. At roughly 5-foot-8, 170 pounds, he’s a bit undersized, but he’s a speedster, clocking in at 4.31 seconds in both the 40-yard dash and shuttle drill at South Carolina’s Pro Day this past March. He caught 92 passes for 1,136 yards and nine touchdowns throughout his five-year collegiate career, the final three seasons of which were spent with the Gamecocks.

The vast majority of his snaps throughout his stint in Columbia came from the slot, picking up a few reps on the outside and in the backfield along the way. He was also used as a special teams returner, returning four punts for 55 yards and a score in the 2022 campaign. The 23-year-old returned four kicks for 88 yards for the Browns in the preseason, this while catching two passes for 26 yards.

Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Brown joins K.J. Hamler, Tyrell Shavers, and Jalen Virgil as wide receivers on Buffalo’s practice squad. His path to a jersey on gamedays is steep, but 4.31 speed is not something to be overlooked; the Bills appear to have uncovered a potential gem in rookie returner Brandon Codrington, but if they ever want to inject some speed and ‘gadget’ ability into their offense, Brown could be an intriguing long-term option.

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