The Buffalo Bills have the league’s reigning MVP in quarterback Josh Allen. That immediately elevates the wide receiver group just because the signal caller can elevate the play of his pass catchers. However, many of Buffalo’s receivers are dealing with nagging injuries early on in training camp.
That means the Bills have to find a way to ensure they give players enough reps to prepare for the regular season, but they’ll also need to keep those key players healthy. For now, most of the main players at wideout
are okay, but that doesn’t mean that the team can rest easily. There are five long weeks in between now and the start of the regular season, and the Bills want to make sure that they have their best players available when they kick off against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1.
In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss a receiver who is likely in camp to eat snaps for those starting-caliber players.
Name: Deon Cain
Number: 32
Position: WR
Height/Weight: 6’2”, 202 pounds
Age: 28 (29 on 8/9/2025)
Experience/Draft: 3; selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the sixth round (No. 185 overall) of the 2018 NFL Draft
College: Clemson
Acquired: Signed with Buffalo on 7/28/2025
Financial situation (per OvertheCap): Cain signed a one-year deal worth a total of $960,000 for the season. That number also represents his cap hit if he makes the 53-man roster. If he’s released, the Bills will not carry a dead-cap charge.
2024 Recap: Cain played with the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL — known to some of us “old heads” as the USFL — and had another productive season. He caught 33 passes for 436 yards and three scores.
In the postseason, he played in two games, catching four passes for 25 yards. He also returned kickoffs for Birmingham, averaging 20 yards per return on 14 tries. He had one rushing attempt for 10 yards.
After the 2024 UFL season, he signed with Buffalo’s practice squad in mid-August. He played in two preseason games with the Bills, hauling in all three of his targets for 28 yards.
The Bills released him as part of final cuts, and he signed with the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad. The Panthers released him on October 15, and Buffalo signed him to their practice squad on October 31. He was waived on December 3 without having appeared in a regular-season game.
Positional outlook: Cain is one of 14 wideouts on the current roster. Khalil Shakir, Kelly Akhariyi, Joshua Palmer, Curtis Samuel, Keon Coleman, Stephen Gosnell, Kristian Wilkerson, Tyrell Shavers, K.J. Hamler, Elijah Moore, Kaden Prather, Laviska Shenault Jr., and Jalen Virgil are the others.
2025 Offseason: Cain played for the Stallions again between stints with Buffalo. With multiple Bills wideouts dealing with injuries, he signed again a few days into training camp.
2025 Season outlook: There’s little chance that Cain makes Buffalo’s roster, but there is a chance he sticks around on the practice squad if he shows out this summer. He’ll have three chances in exhibition games, and he’ll have the luxury of knowing the system this time around to boost his chances.
However, the team has already chosen Jalen Virgil over him once as their wideout on the practice squad, and I assume they’ll do it again if it comes to it. They also drafted Kaden Prather in the seventh round, and I assume they’ll look to keep him on the practice squad, as well.
The receiver room might be banged up, but Cain’s role is not to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He’s here to make sure that the team has enough bodies to make it through training camp and the preseason.
More from buffalorumblings.com:
- Maxwell Hairston leaves Bills training camp practice with injury
- Maxwell Hairston injury, Day 6 training camp observations
- Buffalo Bills getting complete package in DE Michael Hoecht
- Buffalo Bills’ injury list gets much longer as team throws on pads at training camp
- Madden ratings place Josh Allen as the best player in the league
- Sean McDermott wants the Bills to play ‘nasty, physical football’ as pads pop at training camp
- Sights, sounds, and observations from Day 5 of Buffalo Bills 2025 training camp
