Bills to re-sign veteran DT

Phillips agreed to a new one-year Bills contract worth $3M, and ESPN.com’s Alaina Getzenberg adding the deal can max out at $4.6M. Although this Bills regime is quite familiar with Phillips, the free-agent defensive tackle visited earlier this week.

This represents a slight pay cut for Phillips, who came back to Buffalo — after an underwhelming Arizona stay — on a one-year, $5M pact. The Cardinals released Phillips in March 2022, and he agreed to terms with the Bills days later. The former second-round pick waited in free agency a bit longer this year, but he now has a contract that positions him for a ninth NFL season.

Phillips, 30, enjoyed a strong contract year in Buffalo in 2019, but the Bills used him as a rotational player off the bench during his second stay with the team. Phillips still played often, logging a 49% snap rate. Phillips’ 9.5-sack 2019 looks like an outlier still; he tallied 1.5 last season and has not eclipsed three in any other year. Pro Football Focus did not view Phillips’ Bills comeback as especially effective, slotting him just inside the top 100 among interior D-linemen last season.

But this accord sets up Phillips, whom the Bills claimed off waivers from the Dolphins back in 2018, for a fourth season in Buffalo. He will rejoin Ed Oliver, DaQuan Jones and Tim Settle on the Bills’ interior D-line. The Bills also brought former first-round defensive end Shaq Lawson back in 2022, but he remains a free agent.