Claypool was placed on injured reserve earlier this week after he spent much of training camp sidelined with a toe injury. The former second-round pick was hoping to catch on with the Bills after a failed stint with the Bears and Dolphins last season, but now he’ll be looking to catch on with another team once healthy. At 26 years old, Claypool’s career has gone off the rails ever since he was traded from the Steelers during the 2022 season. During the first two years of his career, Claypool totaled 121 receptions for 1,733 yards and 11 touchdowns. Since then, Claypool has posted a receiving line of 54-528-2 and is closer to being out of the league than he is sticking on a 53-man roster. He is free to sign with another team once healthy.

What started as a promising summer for the journeyman wideout ends with a trip to injured reserve, making it unlikely Claypool will make Buffalo’s final roster. Bills head coach Sean McDermott said in May that he had been “very impressed” with Claypool’s play at OTAs. He could catch on with another receiver-needy team once he parts ways with the Bills later this month.

The veteran journeyman has missed about a week of training camp with the toe injury. The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia on Tuesday’s Rotoworld Football Show that Claypool’s absence has been a blow to his chances of making the final roster. Claypool had drawn praise from Buffalo coaches, including head coach Sean McDermott, before the toe issue. Unless he can return to practice in short order, Claypool probably won’t make the Bills Week 1 roster.

It’s just pad-less practices, but for a player hoping to contribute to a team more than he did in 2024, it’s a positive sign for Claypool, who entered the league as a second-round pick of the Steelers in 2020 but has already been labeled a journeyman. The fifth-year receiver is on his third team in two seasons and has totaled just 22 receptions for 217 yards and one touchdown since being traded to the Bears during the 2022 trade deadline. Claypool joined a rather thin receiver room earlier this offseason when he signed a one-year deal with the Bills. He joins veterans Curtis Samuel and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, along with rookie Keon Coleman, as new faces on the team. At just 25 years old, Claypool has a chance to contribute if he can get back to his rookie-year form in which he went for 62-873-9.