2 longtime Bills players might not return to Buffalo in 2024

A couple of longtime Buffalo Bills players might not be returning to the team in 2024. 

The Athletic's Joe Buscaglia noted on Monday that Buffalo was "non-committal" at the NFL scouting combine last week on the futures of safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer. 

Buscaglia thinks this could mean that Buffalo is heading for a "full-position reset" at the safety position. 

Hyde, who just completed his 11th season in the NFL, is set to be a free agent when the new league year begins in March. The former Iowa standout, however, could be heading toward retirement. 

Poyer, meanwhile, has one year remaining on his contract. The Bills could release Poyer and save $5.7 million in cap space with a $2 million dead cap hit. 

From The Athletic: The Bills were overwhelmingly noncommittal on the future of longtime starting safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer and could even be heading for a full-position reset. The duo have been the starters in Buffalo since 2017 but are both in their 30s. Hyde is out of contract and openly mulling retirement, while Poyer has one year remaining, though the Bills can save almost $6 million to cut him. The team had multiple chances to signal intent to keep Poyer at the combine and didn’t do so, which could mean they want to do a pay cut or a flat-out release. GM Brandon Beane said the team has to determine its next steps at the position, which could even be replacing both players.

Replacing both players in the same offseason would be quite the task. Not only would Buffalo need to find two replacement starters, but that would be a significant amount of experience to remove from the roster. 

Poyer, who also just wrapped up his 11th season in the NFL, is just one year removed from reaching the Pro Bowl.