DE Ray, out of NFL since 2019, signs with Bills

Alaina Getzenberg, ESPNMay 14, 2023, 09:55 AM ET

BUFFALO, N.Y. — After being out of the NFL since 2019, defensive end Shane Ray is back in the league, signing with the Buffalo Bills after trying out at the team’s rookie minicamp on Friday and Saturday.

Ray was picked 23rd overall by the Denver Broncos in the 2015 draft out of Missouri and played four seasons for the Broncos. He played in 49 games, starting 15, with 14 career sacks, 94 tackles and 33 quarterback hits. He was on the Broncos team that won Super Bowl 50, forcing a fumble in the game. Beginning in 2017, Ray dealt with a left wrist injury and subsequent surgeries.

“Words can’t describe the emotions I’m feeling right now. So many tears, sleepless nights, depression, everything that comes with losing the game. So many days of having nothing but hope while fighting a uphill battle,” Ray wrote Saturday on his Instagram account.

Ray, 29, added there were “times that I thought maybe I should give up, but I wouldn’t be me if I folded” and that “even in my darkest moments I believed in myself. I believed in my preparation. I believed that I would have another opportunity even if the world didn’t believe.”

Ray joined the Baltimore Ravens in the 2019 offseason but was cut at the end of training camp. He played in 2021 and 2022 for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, recording six sacks last season. Joining the Bills, Ray will reunite with former Broncos teammate Von Miller.

The Bills also signed former UCF running back Isaiah Bowser and linebacker Travin Howard — a 2018 seventh-round pick by the Rams who played in 29 games with Los Angeles — after rookie minicamp tryouts.