Damar Hamlin is BACK, Signing 1-Year Contract Extension With Buffalo Bills

Bills - The Bills have agreed to terms with S Damar Hamlin on a one-year contract extension, the team announced Wednesday. Hamlin was one of Buffalo's full-time starters at safety, starting 14 games in 2024. He was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent.

Hamlin earned a starting role on Buffalo's defense this year and proved to be an impact player. He finished third on the team in total tackles (89) and tied for the team lead in interceptions (2). Hamlin's first career interception came on Monday Night Football in Week 3 against the Jaguars.

He also forced a huge fumble on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson that led to a Bills touchdown in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

What an eventful, inspiring, and overall bizarre run Damar Hamlin has had in the NFL. Three years ago, nobody outside of Bills' (or University of Pittsburgh) fans knew who the guy was. He was the 212th pick (6th round) in the 2021 NFL Draft. He sat on the bench as a rookie. But he then defied the odds and ended up starting 13 games for the Bills in 2022. Yet still, for a majority of football fans, the first time they heard the name Damar Hamlin was when they saw him on primetime television lying dead after collapsing on the 50-yard line.

The first player to die on the field since the Lions' Chuck Hughes in 1971. But unlike Chuck Hughes, Damar Hamlin woke up. He came back to life. Like real-life Jesus. And like a true winner, when Damar finally came to in the hospital, the first words out of his mouth were "Did we win?" 

The doctor, who was apparently auditioning for a role in Days of Our Lives, replied with, "The answer is yes, Damar, you won. You won the game of life". It was super lame. Everybody shamed him for.

It was the biggest story in and outside of sports. It made national and international headlines. The NFL ended up cancelling the Bills-Bengals game altogether. A game that legitimately ended up having playoff implications. Skip Bayless was livid.

(I swear I remembered Skip's tweet being worse. People wanted him fired that? For Skip that was nothing)

The whole incident was completely unprecedented. Wild stuff. But miraculously, Damar Hamlin made a full, and seemingly immediate recovery. I'm pretty sure a week after dying he was back to being in the top 99.99 percentile of healthiest human beings on the planet. So naturally we spent a few days accusing the NFL of replacing Damar Hamlin with a clone.

All while Damar Hamlin, clone or not, proceeded to go on a celebrity "died and came back to life" press tour

HUM Images. Getty Images.

After all the hoopla died down, when the football season was over and the feel good story was no longer fresh in mind, the narrative on Damar Hamlin quickly turned to, "Well actually guys… Damar Hamlin kinda sucks at football. The Bills should probably cut them. But could they really do that?"

For a time, the possibility Damar Hamlin ever coming back to contribute to an NFL team on the field seemed almost impossible. Even when the Bills brought him back, the general consensus was, "Well he died on the field for them. The least they can do is keep him on the roster."

Which in hindsight seems kinda disrespectful to Damar. Leading up to the incident, he had been a starter for over half the season. He had been steadily improving as a player ever since he entered the league. But at the same time… we did all watch him die. Kinda seems like when you die playing football, no matter how long you died for, that you maybe don't go back to doing that activity. He was essentially written off as a player. Meanwhile, nobody seemed to know how to appropriately talk about, or how to treat Damar Hamlin. For example, the Bills retired his number on the back of their ambulance.

I suppose in the history of the Buffalo Bills' ambulance, nobody rode it quite like Damar Hamlin did. That much is true. But by the end of the season, Damar proved everyone wrong. He was back playing meaningful minutes for the Buffalo Bills. And in the biggest moment of their season, in the AFC Divisional round vs the Kansas City Chiefs, in the most important moment of the game, the Buffalo Bills called Damar's number.

That was tough to watch. The Bills got a lot of heat for that play call. But when you have the closest thing the NFL has ever seen to Jesus Christ on your sidelines, you'd be crazy to not try and squeeze a little magic out of him. McDermott's head was in the right place. 

Despite the unfortunate fake punt incident, you'd think Damar Hamlin would still have been a shoe-in for Comeback Player of The Year. The minute he stepped back on the field, people penciled him in for the award. But nobody expected Joe Flacco to rise from dead as well, and throw for 13 TD's & 300+ YPG to lead the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs. Joe Flacco ripped Comeback Player of The Year right from Damar Hamlin's warm, alive hands.

But all Damar Hamlin did was continue to improve as player. He re-earned his spot as a regular starter for the Bills. The guy was all over the place all season song. He was making interceptions.

Tua Tagovailoa was running Kamikaze concussion suicide missions directly into his chest

He was making garbage time playoff interceptions that eventually got overturned, but not before he celebrated it like the Bills just won 3 Super Bowls at once. 

He even made big time plays in the playoffs that counted.

Once again, you'd think that might be enough for Comeback Player of The Year. That maybe the NFL would feel kinda stupid about giving Joe Flacco the award last year, over a guy who everybody thought was dead and became the biggest news in professional sports. At least this year, Damar Hamlin actually put together a full body of work. He was a major piece of the Buffalo Bills defense all season long. He named an alternate to the Pro Bowl. What he did this season was far more impressive than anything he did last year. 

But not quite… Turns out he wasn't even that close.

Still… Damar Hamlin earned himself another contract. At this point, I think it's officially fair to say that Damar Hamlin has worked his way back into the NFL on his own merit. Not just because the Bills feel bad for him. He's actually good enough to be playing in the league. Which is pretty impressive. Damar Hamlin's NFL career has been a ridiculous ride. And at 26-years old, he's on the payroll for at least one more year. If he proves it again this year, maybe he'll even catch a semi-long term contract.