Buffalo activated Curtis Samuel off the injured list and elevated Mecole Hardman Jr. from the practice squad.
The Buffalo Bills will get some much-needed reinforcements to their decimated wide receiver corps.
The Bills activated wide receiver Curtis Samuel from injured reserve ahead of their Divisional round playoff game against the Denver Broncos on Saturday. They also elevated Mecole Hardman Jr. from the practice squad. The roster moves reinforce a receiver room that has been plagued by injuries all year and suffered two more in the Wild Card round.
Samuel signed with the Bills as a free agent in 2024. He appeared in 14 games with two starts for the team, catching 31 passes for 253 yards and a touchdown. He made the first postseason appearance of his nine-year career last season. Against the Broncos in the Wild Card round, he caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Josh Allen; he caught another in the AFC Championship Game. Samuel appeared in only six games this season, catching seven passes for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Hardman signed to the Bills’ practice squad in November. He appeared in two games as a return specialist—with a 61-yard kick return and two punt returns for four yards—before he went down with an injury. He was cut in December but re-signed to the practice squad a few days later. Hardman was a three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, then bounced around with the New York Jets, Chiefs again, then the Green Bay Packers before the Bills.
Before the roster moves, the Bills were down to just three receivers on the depth chart: Khalil Shakir, Brandin Cooks, and Keon Coleman. Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers were placed on injured reserve after both wideouts tore an ACL in last week’s Wild Card matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Shavers went on to play the rest of the game, finishing with one catch for 14 yards but playing over half the offensive snaps.
“Another guy’s got to step up,” head coach Sean McDermott said at his Tuesday press conference after announcing Shavers’s injury. “[R]ight now it’s full confidence in the guys in that room.”
The Bills signed Kristian Wilkerson to the practice squad this week in response to the injuries. They also have 2025 undrafted free agent Stephen Gosnell on the practice squad. Veteran Joshua Palmer was placed on IR before the Jacksonville game after knee and ankle injuries in Week 6 limited him to sporadic appearances through the rest of the season.
Buffalo will also head to Empower Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver without two starters on the defensive back end: safety Jordan Poyer and rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston were listed as out for Saturday’s game due to injury.
They will get reinforcements along the defensive line as well. Veteran defensive tackle Ed Oliver was also activated from injured reserve. A 2019 first-round pick by the Bills, Oliver played only three games in the regular season, first due to an ankle injury, then due to a torn bicep that placed him on injured reserve; but in that time he racked up 12 tackles, including seven tackles for loss, as well as five quarterback hits and three sacks. The Buffalo defensive line has also been decimated by injuries: defensive tackles Jordan Phillips and DeWayne Carter, and defensive ends Michael Hoecht and rookie Landon Jackson.
The Broncos also called up two players from their practice squad for Saturday’s game: wide receiver Elijah Moore and tight end Caleb Lohner. Moore, a former second round pick of the New York Jets, signed with the Bills in the offseason. He appeared in nine games, catching nine passes for 112 yards. He was waived by the Bills in December before signing with the Broncos’ practice squad.
Lohner was a seventh round pick by the Broncos in the 2025 draft. A basketball star in his college days at the University of Utah, the 6-foot-7 Lohner joined the football team, catching four passes for 54 yards and four touchdowns. He cleared waivers in the preseason and was signed to the practice squad as a developmental prospect.
