Buffalo Bills to sign running back Damien Harris, while Devin Singletary reportedly heads to Houston Texans (2024)

On Monday, the Buffalo Bills lost a running back to free agency but quickly gained a new one.

The Bills will proceed without running back Devin Singletary. Singletary is joining the Houston Texans on a one-year deal, per multiple reports. ESPN's Adam Schefter reports the deal is worth up to $3.75 million.

Meanwhile, the Bills are bringing in running back Damien Harris on a one-year deal, a league source confirmed to The Buffalo News. Schefter was first to report. Harris later confirmed it himself, tweeting "LETS GO BUFFALO," with heart emojis and with #BillsMafia.

Harris, 26, spent his first four years in the league with the Patriots. He’s coming off a year when, while working through some injuries, he ran for 462 yards and three touchdowns on 106 carries in 11 games. His best season by far was 2021, when he had 929 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on 202 attempts.

Harris has played 38 games, starting 34. Of those 38 games, he has eight games with 100-plus rushing yards, and three of those came against the Bills. Five of his 20 career rushing touchdowns have come against the Bills, including three in one game in Week 16 of 2021. The longest run of his career, good for 64 yards, also came against Buffalo. Now, he joins the Bills.

With Bills running backs James Cook and Nyheim Hines having some overlap in skillsets, Bills General Manager Brandon Beane knew it was likely the team would bring in another back that could provide other options for the offense.

"We'll definitely add more depth," Beane said last week. "You're really talking about right now just a couple of backs on the roster. So we'll continue to add there and look for different skillsets. ... Yeah, we'll probably add somebody that's a little heavier than that at some point between now and training camp."

Harris is listed as 5-foot-11 and 213 pounds. Cook is listed as 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, while Hines is 5-foot-9 and 196 pounds.

Harris played at Alabama before the Patriots took him in the third round, at No. 87 overall, in 2019.

Singletary, 25, played his first four seasons in the league with the Bills, who drafted him in the third round in 2019, at No. 74 overall. He led the Bills in rushing in each of his four years with the team.

Last season, Singletary ran for 819 yards and five touchdowns on 177 carries. He added another 280 receiving yards and a touchdown on 38 catches. He was an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

"He had some tough runs late in the season," Beane said in January. "We know he can make guys miss in a phone booth. And how his hands improved, or his pass feel improved over the years. So great pro and love Devin. And so again, he is a free agent, too. So, we'll have to see from the business standpoint how that will work out for us."

In his four years in Buffalo, Singletary started 56 of the 61 games he played in, and in that time, accumulated 3,151 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns on 672 carries. There were a few occasions when he avoided a would-be touchdown in favor of going down to take more time off the clock as the Bills attempted to seal late-game wins.

"Devin, you want to talk about one of the most selfless people you can meet," Beane said. "Just love him from day one and what he's done. And just very steady personality, selfless team first, whatever's needed. You need him to pass protect, you need him to – I would say one of the things he really improved on was his short yardage running."