ORCHARD PARK - As far back as the very start of the free agency signing period, Buffalo Bills outside linebacker Michael Hoecht was trying to recruit nose tackle Greg Gaines to join the team.
“He was selling this place hard when I was telling him the Bills called me,” Gaines said the other day following his first practice on One Bills Drive. “It was like back in March and he's like, ‘Dude, come on, let's go.’ He's talking about how great this place is, so he definitely helped sell it a little bit. He just said he loved it up here. The staff is amazing, the facilities are awesome, guys are great. And that's something that I look for, too.”
Gaines and Hoecht were Los Angeles Rams teammates for two years and won a Super Bowl together before Gaines left
to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023. He was often lined up next to 350-pound mountain Vita Vea in the middle of a stout run defense that ranked fourth in 2023 at 93.5 yards allowed per game, fourth in 2024 (97.8), and fifth in 2025 (99.1).
With the Bills switching to an odd-man front, Hoecht knew Gaines - who also has 14.5 sacks and 91 QB pressures in his 108-game career - would be a perfect fit at nose tackle so he began chirping at him to consider Buffalo.
“As you can see, he's quite stout,” Hoecht said with a smile when describing the 6-foot-1, 305-pounder. “He's strong, he was our starting nose guard in the Super Bowl, he has playoff experience, he's played in a couple different systems now. So he kind of understands what's going on and he's just a good guy to have around, too.”
Why the Bills appealed to Greg Gaines
OK, so the defense was a good fit, but were the other selling points?
“I mean it's a fun place to be and I don't know, it's just like the charm of the city and the fan base,” Hoecht said. “And honestly, it helps being a winning football team that's got a good roster. We're competitive right to the end. That's a pretty hard thing to turn down, plus it's always fun to have people that you know in the building, and he's a really good football player.”
Gaines was on the open market for a long time, but he said that was by design. Now entering his eighth NFL season, he stayed patient because he was confident that he would land a job but he wanted it to be in the right place, and with or without Hoecht’s recruiting pitch, Buffalo was on his short list.
“I had been talking to the Bills a lot this offseason and I was just kind of waiting for the right opportunity,” he said. “Kind of got tired of waiting, I was like, let's go, I need to get out there. I wanted to go somewhere I could get a good amount of playing time and be on a team that wins and does well and so this was a perfect fit.”
According to sports contract website Spotrac, the Bills signed Gaines to a one-year, $1.48 million contract but only $187,000 of that is guaranteed. If he gets cut Sunday, the Bills hardly feel a thing, though cutting Gaines seems unlikely.
As soon as he signed the deal, he met the Bills in Cleveland last week and participated in the joint practice and then the game and made his presence felt immediately.
“Yeah, it was interesting, first day was in Cleveland, so weird,” he said. “Went pretty good. I feel like I learned the playbook pretty quick. I'm still getting little things dialed in, but feel like I adapted pretty quick and it's a defense I've been running for a long time. I only got a couple plays out there, but it was nice just getting back into it. It felt like riding a bike; it was like I was just playing last week, so all good.”
The joint practice was a good way to get back into action, and then he played seven snaps in the game and his one tackle was a one-yard stuff of running back Raheim Sanders.
Veteran experience could help a young position group
“He knocked the rust off fast,” said defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard. “Any time you get a guy who wasn’t in a training camp, you’re going to be safe and figure out where their conditioning is at … the muscle memory took over fast and he made some big plays in the game and the joint practice. You have to be smart because he missed a good amount of time in the offseason just to make sure that you continue to progress as this goes on. I love where he’s at. He’s a vet, he’s been through a lot of battles. I think he’ll be good for the group.”
Thursday, he started and played 14 snaps before sitting out the rest of the night while his direct competitor, DeWayne Carter, played the rest of the way. That alone is a sign that Gaines will make the team and serve as Deone Walker’s backup.
What’s funny is even though Gaines has been on the team barely a week, he has more experience in this style defense than any of those players.
“I mean it's a little weird, but I’m an eight-year vet so it's kind of part of the gig at this point because we’ve got a young room,” he said. “It's just really similar to what I've been doing my entire life so it's easy for me, that's what I do and it's easy to understand and comprehend all the concepts and stuff.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Former teammate sold him on Buffalo. Now he's a Bill.
