Defensive back Damar Hamlin has re-signed with the Buffalo Bills on a one-year contract, the team announced Friday, returning for a sixth season with the team more than three years after suffering a cardiac arrest during a game.
Hamlin, who turned 28 on Tuesday, was a free agent for the second consecutive year. He re-signed with the Bills last spring on a one-year, $2 million contract after his rookie contract expired.
His return to the Bills in 2026 was in doubt, as the team added free-agent safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Geno Stone to play alongside incumbent starter Cole Bishop. But the Bills wanted an even deeper unit and now possess the NFL’s most experienced quartet.
Hamlin was hopeful for a return to the Bills, who drafted him in the sixth round in 2021.
“New coach, new vibes, new season,” he said last week while participating in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in Los Angeles.
Hamlin said he was eyeing the Cincinnati Bengals as his next possible team, but added, “Buffalo is home.”
Cincinnati would have been a symbolic destination for the next phase of Hamlin’s career. It was on the Paycor Stadium field where he captured America’s attention in January 2023. Hamlin suffered commotio cordis, a sudden cardiac arrest caused by a blow to the chest, while making an otherwise ordinary tackle against the Bengals on “Monday Night Football.” His heart stopped, and medical personnel resuscitated him.
Unsure if Hamlin would survive, the Bills and the rest of the country waited two days before he emerged from a medically induced coma. He left the hospital after more than nine days. In an emotional appearance at the 2023 ESPY Awards, Hamlin presented the Bills’ entire medical and training staff with the first Pat Tillman Award for Service.
Hamlin returned for the 2023 season, playing in five games as a special teamer. He regained starter status in 2024 and recorded his first three NFL takeaways: two interceptions and a fumble recovery. He started all three playoff games. His strip-sack of Lamar Jackson was a crucial turning point in the Bills’ second-round victory over the Baltimore Ravens.
Hamlin began last season as a backup to Bishop and Taylor Rapp and played only five games because of a pectoral injury suffered in practice.
How he fits
Hamlin and Stone provide experienced insurance and special teams value, but given Stone’s tackling deficiencies that have statistically deteriorated every year, Hamlin looks like a safer option if one of the starters goes down injured — or doesn’t meet expectations.
Bishop, a third-year pro, emerged last year as a no-doubt NFL starter. The main question was who would start with him. As expected, the Bills released Rapp, once viewed as an heir for when the Micah Hyde-Jordan Poyer tandem came to an end. But Rapp dealt with several injuries over his three seasons with them.
Buffalo signed Gardner-Johnson first, making it five different employers for him within a year. Gardner-Johnson is a ball hawk and prolific trash talker who wears out his welcome, but if the Bills can figure out a way to get along, the 2022 NFL interceptions leader should make an impact.
In 87 career games, Gardner-Johnson has 20 interceptions, three forced fumbles and a recovery with seven sacks and 20 quarterback hits. His numbers are rather pedestrian in the postseason, however, with one takeaway, zero fumble activity and no QB hits in 14 games.
Stone has started 53 of 85 NFL games and has collected 14 interceptions (seven in 2023 alone with the Ravens), a forced fumble and two recoveries with two sacks.
Stone is also known as one of the NFL’s worst tacklers. Bills quarterback Josh Allen annihilated him at the end of their meeting last year. Pro Football Reference charted Stone with 26 missed tackles last year, for a 20 percent failure rate on all tackle attempts. Stone has just five career tackles for loss. Poyer averaged that many through his first seven seasons with Buffalo.
Hamlin, who logged six tackles for loss in 2022 and has eight in his career, has missed only 7 percent of his career tackle attempts.
2026 roster update
Buffalo football boss Brandon Beane appears to be approaching his safeties with a healthy degree of hesitance. Beane is taking a wait-and-see approach to most of this crew while he continues to look for foundational pieces for new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s secondary.
Bishop is on his rookie deal and signed through the 2027 season. Gardner-Johnson and Stone accepted one-year “prove it” contracts, and Hamlin is also on a one-year deal.
As such, the quartet won’t preclude Beane from drafting a safety by the fourth round in hopes of obtaining a prospect who can start within a year or two and not merely contribute as a special teamer or a swing defensive back.
The Bills are trying to elevate beyond a playoff win or two, and though these safeties have started a combined 172 regular-season games, and Gardner-Johnson has a Super Bowl ring, they have started just 17 postseason games.
Tim Graham’s takeaway
Hamlin isn’t a lights-out defender, but the Bills won’t find a more meaningful player at his salary.
His presence is priceless.
He’s also a better tackler than Stone and a safer bet than Gardner-Johnson to co-exist.
Hamlin established himself long ago as perseverance personified. He was not guaranteed a spot on the 53-man roster in 2023, but with Sean McDermott and the Bills’ medical staff nervously monitoring, Hamlin overcame unprecedented fears in moments his teammates considered mundane: a full-speed practice, a padded practice, getting hit, making a tackle, playing in a preseason game against opponents desperate to make a roster.
Hamlin went through trauma therapy and still speaks with a sports psychologist to deal with what happened.
“When you talk about an asterisk year, put two asterisks by this one because where do you find that in the player’s or head coach’s or organizational handbook?” former coach Sean McDermott said when Hamlin was announced the 2024 opening-day starter.
“You always have to do what’s in the best interests of the team. I can tell you, he earned it. Whether he was the first guy in the boat or the last guy in the boat really doesn’t matter. Watching his trajectory from that time to now, very impressive.”