“Zero” Chance Of Bills Signing RB Ray Rice

Update:

Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News, citing a team source, reports that there is “zero” chance of the Bills signing free agent RB Ray Rice, despite the recent report that they could consider the idea.

The Bills already signed RB Cierre Wood to a contract on Wednesday, which further suggests that Rice isn’t on their radar.

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Mike Garafolof of FOX Sports reports that the Bills have begun internal discussions on whether to explore signing free agent RB Ray Rice.

This comes after the news that RB LeSean McCoy is expected to miss a few weeks with a hamstring injury.

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Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk mentions that Bills HC Rex Ryan previously said during an interview that they didn’t consider signing free agent RB Ray Rice due to their depth at running back.

“For us, we kind of have a loaded backfield, so there won’t even be a consideration there, because [of] the type of depth we have,” Ryan said at the time. “And I think that’s probably what a lot of it is. I was with Ray in Baltimore [and] I really liked him when I was there. . . . We don’t have any interest and we never went into great detail about it because of the type of depth that we have at running back.”

However, the Bills have recently sustained a number of injuries at the position including to LeSean McCoy, Fred Jackson and Karlos Williams.

With this in mind, Florio wonders if the Bills could now have interest in possibly bringing in Rice.

It’s not just Florio either. Jason La Canfora mentioned that the Bills could be Rice’s “best shot” at returning to the NFL, and cited Ryan’s familiarity with Rice as being a reason for him to at least consider the idea.

Browns HC Mike Pettine acknowledged to SI.com last week that they’ve discussed the idea of possibly signing Rice to a contract.

“We’ve talked about it, but I don’t think we’re there at this point,” Pettine said.

However, Pettine added that they’re just not comfortable doing so at this time.

“I don’t think it’s gotten to that point, to say, ‘Hey, I’d kind of be comfortable with it,’” Pettine said. “But I think it would get to that point if we arrived at it from a football standpoint, then asked that question. Instead of working the process backwards. Why bother with asking the question if the need never presents itself?”

Rice, 28, last appeared in an NFL game back in 2013 when he ran for 660 yards on 214 carries (3.1 YPC) to go along with 58 receptions for 321 yards receiving and four total touchdowns.

It’s worth mentioning that Rice dealt with a hip injury that year, which could explain his dip in production. However, Pro Football Focus still had him rated as the worst qualifying running back in the league that year.

We’ll have more regarding teams that could be interested in Rice as the news is available.