DE Shane Ray, out of NFL since 2019, signs with Bills

BUFFALO, N.Y. — After being out of the NFL since 2019, former 2015 first-round pick Shane Ray is back in the league, signing with the Buffalo Bills after trying out at the team’s rookie minicamp on Friday and Saturday.

The defensive end was picked by the Denver Broncos 23rd overall in 2015 out of Missouri and then played for the Broncos for four seasons. He played in 49 games, starting 15, with 14 career sacks, 94 tackles and 33 quarterback hits. He was on the Broncos team that won Super Bowl 50, forcing a fumble in the game. Beginning in 2017, Ray dealt with a left wrist injury and subsequent surgeries.

“Words can’t describe the emotions I’m feeling right now. So many tears, sleepless nights, depression, everything that comes with losing the game. So many days of having nothing but hope while fighting a uphill battle,” Ray wrote Saturday on his Instagram.

Ray, 29, added there were “times that I thought maybe I should give up, but I wouldn’t be me if I folded” and that “even in my darkest moments I believed in myself. I believed in my preparation. I believed that I would have another opportunity even if the world didn’t believe.”

He was last with an NFL team in 2019, going through training camp with the Baltimore Ravens, and spent the 2021-22 seasons with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, recording six sacks last season. Joining the Bills, Ray will reunite with former Broncos teammate Von Miller.

The Bills also signed former UCF running back Isaiah Bowser and linebacker Travin Howard, a former 2018 seventh-round pick by the Rams who has played in 29 games with Los Angeles, after rookie minicamp tryouts.