{"id":41105,"date":"2018-03-29T19:24:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T23:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=41105"},"modified":"2018-03-29T19:24:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T23:24:45","slug":"bills-sign-cornerback-phillip-gaines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/03\/29\/bills-sign-cornerback-phillip-gaines\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills Sign Cornerback Phillip Gaines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2018\/03\/27\/predicting-brandon-beane-next-moves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">speculated by LWOS<\/a>\u00a0earlier in the week, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?search=Buffalo%20Bills&amp;pid=&amp;idx=teams\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> have signed free agent cornerback, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GainPh00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phillip Gaines<\/a><\/strong>. The Bills&#8217; social media team confirmed the signing with the following tweet:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We&#39;ve signed CB Phillip Gaines.<\/p>\n<p>Details on our newest addition: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XZ7s2i05Ab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/XZ7s2i05Ab<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zmtmeuAo7q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/zmtmeuAo7q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuffaloBills\/status\/979454409435439107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The details of the Gaines contract have yet to be disclosed.<\/p>\n<h1>Buffalo Bills Sign Phillip Gaines<\/h1>\n<p>The Bills addressed a much-needed area of depth on Thursday with the signing of Gaines. He spent the first four years of his NFL career as a member of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/kan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>. Taken in the third round of the 2014 draft out of Rice University, the 26-year old has amassed a total of 16 starts in 41 career games.<\/p>\n<p>Gaines has not exactly been a playmaker over the course of his NFL career.\u00a0He has only registered a single interception with 14 passes defended. Last year, <strong>Pro Football Focus<\/strong>, had Gaines ranked as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballfocus.com\/nfl\/players\/phillip-gaines\/8722\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">119th best CB in the NFL<\/a>. His best statistical season was in 2016, where he totaled an impressive 41 tackles, mainly as a nickel corner.<\/p>\n<h2>Physically Gifted Gaines<\/h2>\n<p>Standing at 6&#8217;0&#8243;, 190 pounds, Gaines is blessed with ideal size coupled with blazing speed that saw him register a sizzling 4.38 40-yard dash time a the NFL combine. In addition, Gaines scored the second-quickest three-cone drill among cornerbacks (6.62 seconds). He is adept to playing in zone coverage, which should translate well in coach\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/coaches\/McDeSe0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Sean McDermott<\/strong>&#8216;s<\/a>\u00a0defense.<\/p>\n<p>The NFL Network&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/draft\/2014\/profiles\/phillip-gaines?id=2543851\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Mayock<\/a>, had the following brief draft analysis on Gaines:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a long corner who had a tremendous combine workout. I felt like he&#8217;s a developmental guy, but he has starter skills.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Bills Cornerback Depth<\/h2>\n<p>Last season, the Bills secondary was definitely an area of strength but has endured a bit of turnover during the off-season. Unrestricted free-agent\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GainE.00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">E.J.<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GainE.00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Gaines<\/a><\/strong>,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>who was very effective when healthy, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2018\/03\/23\/e-j-gaines-signs-browns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was not retained<\/a>\u00a0by general manager\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/executives\/BeanBr0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Beane<\/a>. Fellow free agent cornerback, the much-maligned\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WrigSh00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shareece Wright<\/a><\/strong>, recently signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a>. Finally,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JohnLe03.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leonard<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JohnLe03.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0Johnson<\/a><\/strong>, who enjoyed a surprisingly solid season, still remains unsigned.<\/p>\n<p>That left the Bills with spectacular rookie\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WhitTr01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tre\u2019Davious White<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as well as unproven\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PittLa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lafayette Pitts<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BordBr00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Breon Borders<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>as cornerbacks under contract through the 2018 season. However, the team did begin to fill this newfound deficit in their secondary earlier in the calendar year, when they secured the services of two-time Pro Bowler\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaviVo99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Vontae Davis<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2018\/02\/26\/buffalo-bills-sign-cornerback-vontae-davis\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one-year contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Where Gaines Fits in the Bills Defense<\/h2>\n<p>If the season were to start today, Gaines would line-up as the team&#8217;s starting nickel corner. There is not much competition behind him at the present moment, so expect him to see considerable playing time. That being said, there have been several mock drafts that have the team taking a cornerback early on in the draft. If that were to come to fruition, it would definitely throw a monkey wrench into things with respect to Gaines&#8217; playing time.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Q_zZKb6OSm9K-Z3fcJJ9Yg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/626306550\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Q_zZKb6OSm9K-Z3fcJJ9Yg',sig:'bi7P_OTRnRKpGTWSlEA1cdGjr5bcadd1Af_ILIw-cJo=',w:'594px',h:'453px',items:'626306550',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Bills have signed free agent cornerback Phillip Gaines. Terms of the contract are yet to be disclosed. The move helps the team address depth issues in their secondary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2514,"featured_media":41119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1522350000","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"Phillip Gaines signing.","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"465","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36],"tags":[2461,177,61,40,1222],"class_list":["post-41105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bills","category-nfl-news","tag-brandon-beane","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-phillip-gaines"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}