The Bills added a free agent at a position that had previously gone unaddressed this offseason. Buffalo signed free agent WR Kaelin Clay.
Clay, 26, spent the first half of the 2017 season with the Bills, after the team acquired him via trade with Carolina in exchange for CB Kevon Seymour and a 2019 seventh-round pick.
The receiver would appear in four games for Buffalo, but was used sparingly on offense and as a punt returner on special teams.
When the Bills sustained injuries at the cornerback position leaving them shorthanded at the position last October, they claimed a cornerback off waivers and released Clay.
He was then claimed by the Panthers, where Clay was utilized as a punt returner and reserve wideout. Between the two clubs, Clay had six receptions for 85 yards last season. He also had 19 punt returns for 149 yards and a touchdown.
Coming back to the Bills for a second stint, Clay is treating it like a brand new opportunity.
"I'm coming into this with a fresh mindset," Clay said. "It's a new start for me and a new start for our team and I'm just going in there every day working to the best of my abilities and working my craft and helping this team win games."
Clay is hopeful that getting a full offseason with the team will enable him to establish himself as a crucial part of the team, something that couldn't really happen late last summer when he was acquired via trade just days before the regular season.
"Not coming in the week of the first game and double dutching with the playbook and trying to figure out what plays I know and don't know," he said. "Now it'll be more about learning the playbook front to back and knowing my assignments."
Clay is a former sixth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2015), but did not make their final roster. He spent most of the 2015 season on the Detroit Lions practice squad, but in November that season he was signed off the Lions practice squad by the Baltimore Ravens.
The wide receiver/return specialist remained with the Ravens through the 2016 offseason, but was placed on injured reserve in August.
This past May he was signed by the Carolina Panthers. He had five catches for 116 yards in the preseason for Carolina.
The 5-10, 195-pound receiver has 4.45 speed and was a First-Team All-American in his only season at Utah (2014) when he scored 16 touchdowns.
