Buffalo Bills

Lawson (ankle) has been cleared of his injury, Josh Reed of WIVB.com reports. "Since I got cleared with the ankle injury I'm doing everything right," Lawson noted. "I took care of my body, I'm eating right and doing everything a pro does to be successful."

It's make or break for Lawson in year three, as the defensive end has struggled to stay on the field the past two seasons. He enters this year with a new mindset, as he is on the bubble to secure a spot on the 53-man roster. The former first-round pick has six sacks across his first two years in the league.

Towbridge faces an uphill battle to win the No. 3 job at tight end, Ryan Talbot of NewYorkUpstate.com reports.

Towbridge went undrafted out of Lousiville last spring and then spent the entire 2017 season on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury. He's since returned to the practice field, but Towbridge is buried on the depth chart and will need to be very impressive on special teams to stick around in Buffalo.

McCoy's teammates haven't seen any signs of regression in the running back during offseason workouts, Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News reports. "If you prepare yourself the right way, you can play as long as you want to," tackle Jordan Mills said. "[McCoy] eats right, he trains right, he's always studying, he's always trying to get better. And he's always looking at ''Well, I'm the best, but how can I get better?' He's never complacent at what he does, and that's what makes him Shady. He's a great player and he improves every year."

McCoy, who participated in minicamp last week after missing part of OTAs with an illness, will turn 30 on July 12 and currently ranks fourth in career carries among active running backs. Some point to his career-low 4.0 YPC from 2017 as a sign of decline, but one needs to keep in mind that McCoy also handled the third-heaviest workload of his career last season as the centerpiece of a Bills offense that finished second-to-last in passing yards per game (177). Along the way, McCoy continued to display his trademark burst with 12 carries of 20-plus yards -- the second most he's had in nine pro seasons. With Buffalo skipping on drafting a running back in a loaded rookie class, all signs point to McCoy continuing as a workhorse in 2018 with only the newly-signed Chris Ivory a legitimate threat to steal carries. With that said, McCoy's efficiency probably won't see much improvement given the questionable state of the team's passing attack and offensive line.

Gaines, signed as a free agent after spending his first four seasons with the Chiefs, has been the main No. 3 nickel corner during OTA practices, Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News reports.

The Bills play a style of defense where the nickel corner sees the field often, illustrated by last year's No. 3 guy, Leonard Johnson, (who wasn't re-signed) seeing the field for 61 percent of the defensive snaps. Gaines has never logged more than 44 tackles in a season, but he's also spent his entire career in a much different defense. Johnson totaled 53 tackles in the system in 2017.

Murphy (knee) was limited during OTA sessions this week, Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News reports.

Murphy missed the entire 2017 season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his left knee in August, so this isn't a surprise. The free-agent signee is expected to boost the Bills' pass rush in 2018, an area that became an eyesore in 2017 amid some otherwise good things on an improved defense. The team is big on rotating defenders, so the plan seems to be to use a combination of Murphy, Jerry Hughes and Shaq Lawson as the main outside pass rushers. Murphy did log nine sacks on top of 47 tackles in 16 games with Washington in 2016, though those type of numbers might be tough to reproduce given that he's likely to sit in certain packages, in addition to the fact he's coming off a major injury.