The Facts: The Bills acquired Hines in a midseason trade last year, but the running back was most effective as a special teams player. He memorably returned a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns in Buffalo’s regular-season finale against New England. But Hines didn’t receive an offensive touch in that contest. In his nine regular-season games with Buffalo, Hines took six carries for -3 yards and caught five passes for 53 yards with a TD. RBs coach Kelly Skipper recently noted that Hines’ transition to the Bills’ offense was more challenging than it may have seemed from afar. But after taking a pay cut to remain with the club, Hines is in a much better position to be an offensive contributor in 2023. “When you slow it down — and he’s learning it from the beginning — everything makes sense for him now,” Skipper said. “[Last year] he was trying to connect what was familiar to him in Indy to here and trying to function. He’s definitely explosive, but you’ll see him a little more experienced in the run game. … We showed him off in the pass game mostly [last year]. Now, he can function in anything we do.”

Diehards Line:At his best with the Colts in 2020, Hines rushed for 380 yards with three touchdowns and caught 63 passes for 482 yards with four TDs — good for a total of 862 yards from scrimmage. Fellow Bills running back James Cook recently said that he’s expecting to be the team’s lead back in 2023. But if Hines can be a dual-threat contributor like he was in Indianapolis, then that will definitely benefit Buffalo’s offense.