The Bills have signed all 10 members of their 2026 draft class.
They wrapped it up by getting fourth-round offensive tackle Jude Bowry under contract on Friday.
The Bills previously signed second-round defensive end T.J. Parker, second-round cornerback Davison Igbinosun, fourth-round wide receiver Skyler Bell, fourth-round linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr, fifth-round safety Jalon Kilgore, fifth-round defensive tackle Zane Durant, seventh-round cornerback Toriano Pride Jr., seventh-round punter Tommy Doman and seventh-round offensive guard Ar’maj Reed-Adams.
The Bills selected Bowry with the 102nd overall pick.
He played four seasons at Boston College, making 23 starts in 31 career games. He has experience at left and right tackle but played mostly on the left side for BC.
Bowry was a team captain in 2025 and did not allow a sack in 320 total dropback snaps at left tackle.
The Bills made five roster moves on Thursday.
They signed wide receivers Deven Thompkins and Max Tomczak, waived cornerback Dorian Strong with a non-football injury, waived/injured running back Desmond Reid and waived wide receiver Gabriel Benyard.
Thompkins is entering his fifth year in the NFL and was a minicamp invite with the Bills this week. The Utah State product made a memorable play on Wednesday, laying out to secure a deep touchdown pass from quarterback Shane Buechele.
Thompkins previously played for the Falcons (2025), Panthers (2024) and Buccaneers (2022-23). He has 42 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown in his NFL career.
Tomczak rejoins the Bills after signing with the team in May as an undrafted free agent. He spent his four-year collegiate career with Youngstown State. In 49 career games, Tomczak totaled a school-record 225 receptions, 3,024 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.
Darron Lee, a first-round pick of the Jets in 2016, has formally been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Gabriela Perpetuo.
Via News Channel 9, a Hamilton County, Tennessee grand jury returned the indictment on Wednesday. Previously, prosecutors did not rule out seeking the death penalty.
The case includes evidence that Lee had consulted ChatGPT on how to deal with a person who is unresponsive. Lee also allegedly asked ChatGPT about the injuries that would be consistent with someone falling in the shower.
Prosecutors have dismissed a separate charge of tampering with evidence.
Separately, Perpetuo’s estate has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Lee.
Lee played three years with the Jets, one with the Chiefs, and one with the Bills. He last played in 2020.
Most agents tend to characterize new contracts as “extensions,” even though there are no true extensions in the NFL. The old contract goes away, and a new one takes its place.
The player doesn’t have to wait for the new deal to kick in. The new deal starts now, usually with a signing bonus.
By focusing on the new years, agents calculate the “new money.” And the new-money average is always higher than the total value of the deal from signing.
If, for example, a player has one year left on a current deal at $1 million and he gets a three-year, $30 million “extension,” he has a four-year, $31 million deal. The new-money value is $10 million per year. The real value — the value from signing — is $7.75 million per year.
The new-money analysis is used because it makes the numbers bigger, and the contract seemingly better. Those who get the text messages from the agents with the news of the new deal, including the new-money average, pass that information along without mentioning what the new contract actually is worth.
Sometimes, there’s a new contract that exposes the flaw in the new-money analysis. The new Patrick Mahomes deal, for example, adds two years and $239.05 million in new money. Under the new-money analysis, his new-money APY is $119.525 million — nearly twice the prior high-water mark of $60 million per year.
Mahomes isn’t the first player whose new contract leads to new years and new money that generate a ridiculously high new-money APY. Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s contract from 2025 was reported as a six-year, $330 million deal, for an average of $55 million per year. The new-money APY, given what he was due to make on his prior four-year deal, is close to $90 million.
Also, Deshaun Watson’s five-year, $230 million deal with the Browns was signed while he had four years left on his prior deal with the Texans. The new-money average (on the one extra year) was likewise in the range of $90 million.
Then there’s the last deal (for now) that Aaron Donald did with the Rams. The team tore up the existing three years and replaced it with a three-year deal at a higher total payout. In that case, the new-money APY is, technically, infinity.
The extreme examples expose the logical hole in the new-money analysis. The reality is that the old deal is gone and a new deal has taken its place. Almost always, the average payout from the signing of the new deal is much lower than the new-money APY.
Which, again, is why agents use new-money APY. And the teams willingly allow it. If the bigger number makes the player feel better about the contract he has signed than the smaller (and truer) number would, that’s a win for the organization.
Bills safety Cole Bishop became a full-time starter last season, playing all 17 games. His on-field absence in the offseason program therefore was notable.
Bishop revealed Wednesday he had “some stuff cleaned up in the knee” this offseason.
“So just trying to get back from that. Been running a good bit the past week and making progress,” Bishop said, via video from Matt Parrino of syracuse.com.
Bishop said he “should be good for camp, for sure.”
For now, he is watching and learning.
“I’ve taken mental reps before,” Bishop said. “Obviously, you’d like to be out there, but I feel like I’ve got a really good understanding of the defense. So, I’m excited to get out there.”
