As a free agent for the first time last year, Taylor Rapp was forced to settle for a one-year, $1.77 million contract with the Buffalo Bills, a team that already had two starting safeties of a high caliber. He was leaving the L.A. Rams not for an opportunity to start necessarily, but to start over. This week, Rapp did get that opportunity to start, as the Bills released Jordan Poyer and also seem set to part ways with free agent Micah Hyde, opening the door for a new safety. Buffalo responded by giving Rapp a deal worth up to $14.5 million over three years before free agency.
Rapp started four games in 2023 and recorded 50 tackles with one interception. It was the lowest amount of snaps in his career, other than when he missed almost half of the season in 2020. But Rapp played a career-high 191 snaps on special teams and hung on with Buffalo until an opportunity presented itself, which it clearly has. He’s not the only former Ram getting paid by the Bills.
Guard David Edwards also made the trek from L.A. to Buffalo in 2023 free agency and the Bills gave him a two-year, $6 million extension on Wednesday. It seems that Edwards is being signed as a utility backup, not a starter, but like Rapp he could just be waiting for the right time. A fifth round pick in 2019, Edwards didn’t start any games for the Bills in 2023, playing 148 snaps in reserve and 80 on special teams.
The Rams are not really missing Rapp or Edwards, so they can feel good that two players they developed have managed to get paid not once, but at least two more times.
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