Ray Rice is waiting on the open market. The former Baltimore Ravens star has made the public apology. He has kept in shape. He has personally called teams expressing interest and yet a return to the NFL is looking more grim by the day. It was assumed that the first injury to a running back would cause Rice's phone to ring and so far that has not been the case. The veteran is running out of time to get on the field for the 2015 season and the Buffalo Bills might be his last chance.
The Bills have big issues in the run game. Injuries have hit the position group hard in the last few weeks, most notably to LeSean McCoy. According to ESPN's Josina Anderson, an MRI revealed a tear in McCoy's hamstring which is expected to keep him off the field. McCoy has been dealing with a hamstring issue that is now more severe than expected. While head coach Rex Ryan told the media earlier he is cautiously optimistic that the running back will be healthy for Week 1, team sources tell Anderson that is not the case.
"I mean if he came around and just started feeling really, really good, heaven knows. But [we] have to look at all the contingency plans: putting him on a pitch count possibly, or, he's not out there at all and we got to go without him and get the other guys ready. You just don't know," a source tells Anderson, via ESPN.com.
The question is whether the door is now open for Rice. Boobie Dixon and Bryce Brown have both dealt with injuries, but made their returns to the field this week. Karlos Williams remains out with an unknown health issue. Is Brown and Dixon enough for Buffalo? According to Ryan, the injuries on the roster do not mean Rice is joining the team.
For us, we kind of have a loaded backfield, so there won't even be a consideration there, because [of] the type of depth we have," Ryan said on Friday's PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. "And I think that's probably what a lot of it is. I was with Ray in Baltimore [and] I really liked him when I was there. . . . We don't have any interest and we never went into great detail about it because of the type of depth that we have at running back."
The Bills could be leaning heavily on the legs of Tyrod Taylor who is expected to be a dual-threat quarterback. He has a dream team of wide receivers to work with in Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin and Robert Woods. That talent might mean that Dixon or Brown is enough for Buffalo until McCoy can come back.
