Bills retain yet another veteran safety

The Bills’ safety retention effort continues. Dean Marlowe, who returned to Buffalo via trade at last year’s deadline, agreed to terms to stay. He signed a one-year deal, according to the team.

Marlowe came back to the Bills just more than a month after Micah Hyde‘s season-ending injury and became a starter following Damar Hamlin‘s terrifying January injury. The Bills are running it back with Hyde, the recently re-signed Jordan Poyer, Hamlin and Marlowe in 2023.

Initially signed during Brandon Beane’s first free agency period as GM, in 2018, Marlowe spent three years in Buffalo. He left for a Detroit free-agency deal in 2021 and signed with Atlanta last year. But the Falcons traded Marlowe back to the Bills on deadline day, one in which the AFC East champions acquired both Marlowe and Nyheim Hines.

Marlowe, 31, played one defensive snap during his first two months back in Buffalo. But the Bills needed him following Hamlin’s cardiac arrest scene. The Bills turned to Marlowe as a full-time starter against the Patriots in Week 18 and in both their playoff contests. Marlowe intercepted a pass in Buffalo’s narrow wild-card win over Miami.

The Bills have employed their Hyde-Poyer safety tandem for six seasons now, and Poyer’s two-year, $12.5M deal will bring a seventh season of this pair working together. Marlowe served as a top backup for the Bills from 2018-20, starting seven games during that span. Hamlin’s progress will obviously be worth monitoring as the season approaches, but the inspirational defender has received full clearance. If Hamlin indeed returns to game action as expected, he is expected to be the Bills’ top safety reserve—as he was last season. Marlowe, however, provides additional depth for an injury-plagued unit and a seasoned special teams presence.